Generative Space: Embodiment And Identity At The Margins On The Early Modern Stage
type: CreativeWork
description: In "Generative Space: Embodiment and Identity at the Margins on the Early Modern Stage," I argue that the early modern stage provides a space in which emerging, marginal and unsanctioned identities can be shaped through the physical interactions between characters and their environments. Spaces that are marginalized on the stage, set apart from the main action of the play, or considered culturally or environmentally offensive, harbor figures that are not socially accepted or alloto exist legitimately outside of those spaces. This is in some ways liberating to the characters, but at the same time their identities are contingent upon the marginal spaces they inhabit. Such spaces are also shaped by physical and sensual interactions between the characters: sights, sounds, and smells move through these spaces in profoundly material ways that connect onlookers to the objects of their gazes or speakers to their audiences. Identities are shaped by the characters' bodily interactions with the spaces they inhabit; these interactions result in a self that is interconnected with the environment and the objects in it. The identities the characters are alloto express exist only temporarily within these generative spaces, but as they are represented on the stage, they ultimately find expression and legitimacy in public. My dissertation shows how space shapes identity and how bodies shape space.
abstract: In "Generative Space: Embodiment and Identity at the Margins on the Early Modern Stage," I argue that the early modern stage provides a space in which emerging, marginal and unsanctioned identities can be shaped through the physical interactions between characters and their environments. Spaces that are marginalized on the stage, set apart from the main action of the play, or considered culturally or environmentally offensive, harbor figures that are not socially accepted or alloto exist legitimately outside of those spaces. This is in some ways liberating to the characters, but at the same time their identities are contingent upon the marginal spaces they inhabit. Such spaces are also shaped by physical and sensual interactions between the characters: sights, sounds, and smells move through these spaces in profoundly material ways that connect onlookers to the objects of their gazes or speakers to their audiences. Identities are shaped by the characters' bodily interactions with the spaces they inhabit; these interactions result in a self that is interconnected with the environment and the objects in it. The identities the characters are alloto express exist only temporarily within these generative spaces, but as they are represented on the stage, they ultimately find expression and legitimacy in public. My dissertation shows how space shapes identity and how bodies shape space.
author: Anglin, Sallie
keywords: Body, Drama, Early Modern Drama, Renaissance England, Shakespeare, Space, Literature in English, British Isles
date published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:05:43Z
provider: University of Mississippi
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Mississippi