Theatre and testimony in Shakespeare's England [electronic resource] : a culture of mediation / Holger Schott Syme.
2012
PN2589 .S96 2012eb
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Title
Theatre and testimony in Shakespeare's England [electronic resource] : a culture of mediation / Holger Schott Syme.
Author
Syme, Holger Schott.
ISBN
9781139206488 (electronic bk.)
1139206486 (electronic bk.)
9781107011854
110701185X
9781139203500
1139206486 (electronic bk.)
9781107011854
110701185X
9781139203500
Imprint
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xiv, 283 p.) : ill.
Call Number
PN2589 .S96 2012eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
792/.094209031
Summary
"Holger Syme presents a radically new explanation for the theatre's importance in Shakespeare's time. He portrays early modern England as a culture of mediation, dominated by transactions in which one person stood in for another, giving voice to absent speakers or bringing past events to life. No art form related more immediately to this culture than the theatre. Arguing against the influential view that the period underwent a crisis of representation, Syme draws upon extensive archival research in the fields of law, demonology, historiography and science to trace a pervasive conviction that testimony and report, delivered by properly authorised figures, provided access to truth. Through detailed close readings of plays by Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare - in particular Volpone, Richard II and The Winter's Tale - and analyses of criminal trial procedures, the book constructs a revisionist account of the nature of representation on the early modern stage"-- Provided by publisher.
"The Authenticity of Mediation: A man dressed in a simple black gown or an elaborate robe of office stands before a crowd of listeners. He speaks, and as his audience attend to his words they understand that the words are not his at all, but belong to another, absent voice. Continuing to listen, they begin to hear, through the conduit of the man's body, that other voice as though its owner were speaking. And as the absent voice materializes, it conjures a world of absent events and people, meetings of kings or street brawls among drunkards, mundane business transactions or chilling encounters with the supernatural"-- Provided by publisher.
"The Authenticity of Mediation: A man dressed in a simple black gown or an elaborate robe of office stands before a crowd of listeners. He speaks, and as his audience attend to his words they understand that the words are not his at all, but belong to another, absent voice. Continuing to listen, they begin to hear, through the conduit of the man's body, that other voice as though its owner were speaking. And as the absent voice materializes, it conjures a world of absent events and people, meetings of kings or street brawls among drunkards, mundane business transactions or chilling encounters with the supernatural"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Theatre and testimony in Shakespeare's England.
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Table of Contents
Introduction: the authenticity of mediation
1. Trial representations: live and scripted testimony in criminal prosecutions
2. Judicial digest: Edward Coke reads the Essex papers
3. Performance anxiety: bringing scripts to life in court and on stage
4. Royal depositions: Richard II, early modern historiography, and the authority of deferral
5. The reporter's presence: narrative as theatre in The Winter's Tale
Epilogue: the theatre of the twice-told tale
Select bibliography.
1. Trial representations: live and scripted testimony in criminal prosecutions
2. Judicial digest: Edward Coke reads the Essex papers
3. Performance anxiety: bringing scripts to life in court and on stage
4. Royal depositions: Richard II, early modern historiography, and the authority of deferral
5. The reporter's presence: narrative as theatre in The Winter's Tale
Epilogue: the theatre of the twice-told tale
Select bibliography.