| Description |
xxiii, 193 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Contents note continued: 2.2.3.The Swap -- 2.2.4.Performing Swaps -- 2.2.5.The 28 Templates and the Tail, or 'Feminine' Ending -- 2.3.Changing the Representation of the Pattern (Prosodic Variation) -- 2.3.1.Weak Beats (beats realised by weak syllables) -- 2.3.2.Performing Weak Beats -- 2.3.3.Strong Offbeats (offbeats realised by stressed syllables) -- 2.3.4.Harsh Mapping (beat realised by subordinate stress) -- 2.3.5.Awkward Mapping (beat realised by influenced syllable) -- 2.3.6.Contraction and Expansion of Words in Performance -- 2.4.Other Variations in Rhythm -- 2.4.1.Phrasing -- 2.4.2.Syllabification -- 2.4.3.Prosodic Figures: The Golden Line: oAo0oAo0oA -- 2.4.4.Prosodic Figures: The Balanced Line: oAoAo0oAoA -- 3.1.Pauses and Short Lines -- 3.1.1.Mid-line Break (Vaesura) -- 3.1.2.Final Pause: Endstopping and Running On -- 3.2.Transitions Between Speakers -- 3.2.1.Shared or Divided Lines (Part-lines) -- 3.2.2.Stichomythia -- 4.1.The 'Jolt' -- |
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Contents note continued: 4.1.1.The Initial Jolt ('Headless Line') -- 4.1.2.The Medial Jolt -- 4.1.3.The Transitional Jolt -- 4.2.The 'Drag' -- 5.1.Rests that Cue Stage Business -- 5.2.Rests that Cue Expressive Gestures -- 5.3.The Deictic Rest -- 5.4.Multiple Lacunae -- 6.1.Short and Long Lines in Blank Verse -- 6.1.1.Short Lines -- 6.1.2.Long Lines (Alexandrines) -- 6.2.Rhymed Verse -- 6.2.1.The Pentameter Couplet -- 6.2.2.The Pentameter Stanza -- 6.2.3.Rhymed Alexandrines -- 6.2.4.The Septenary or 'Fourteener'('Iambic Heptameter') -- 6.2.5.The Iambic Tetrameter Couplet -- 6.2.6.The Four-beat Heptasyllabic Couplet -- 6.2.7.Doggerel -- 7.1.What is Scansion (and Why is it Useful)? -- 7.2.Prosodic Politics: Independence, Domination and Liberation -- 7.2.1.Inhibition -- 7.2.2.Table of Prosodic Politics -- 7.2.3.Liberation -- 7.3.Scanning Elastic Words -- 7.4.Context and Accent -- 7.5.Scanning Compounds -- 7.6.Scanning and Stress Exchange -- 7.7.Scanning Short Pentameters -- |
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Contents note continued: Stress-patterns: Fixed, Predictably Variable, and Randomly Variable -- List of Names |
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Machine generated contents note: 1.1.Syllables -- 1.1.1.Schwa and Half-syllables -- 1.1.2.Schwa and Elasticity -- 1.1.3.Counting Syllables -- 1.1.4.Kinds of Contraction -- 1.1.5.Restorables (expanded forms peculiar to Shakespeare's English) -- 1.1.6.Transitions between Syllables -- 1.2.Lexical Stress: Major, Minor and Weak -- 1.2.1.Word Classes -- 1.2.2.Major or 'A! Stress -- 1.2.3.Minor or 'B' Stress -- 1.2.4.Weak or '0' Stress -- 1.3.Accent. High and Low Syllables -- 1.3.1.Normal or 'Default' Accent -- 1.3.2.The Tone-unit: Breaks, Cuts, Cracks and Flaws -- 1.3.3.Plonking -- 1.3.4.Contrastive and Focal Accent -- 1.4.Syntactic Stress -- 1.4.1.Subordinate or 'a' Stress -- 1.4.2.Inhibited or '0' Stress -- 1.5.Beats. The Timing of Syllables -- 1.5.1.Stress, Accent and Beats -- 1.5.2.Unstressed Beats -- 1.5.3.Silent Beats -- 2.1.The Prototype: Verse and Line -- 2.2.Changing the Pattern (Metrical Variation) -- 2.2.1.The Reversal -- 2.2.2.Performing Medial Reversals -- |
| Summary |
Rhythm and Meaning in Shakespeare explores the rhythmical organization of Shakespeare's verse and how it creates and reinforces meaning both in the theatre and in the mind of the reader. Because metrical form in the pentameter is not passively present in the text, but rather something that the performer must co-operatively re-create in speaking it, pentameter is what John Barton calls "stage-direction in shorthand," a supple instrument through which Shakespeare communicates valuable cues to performance. This book is thus an essential guide for actors wishing to perform in Shakespeare's plays, as well as a valuable resource for anyone wishing to enhance their understanding of and engagement with Shakespeare's verse. Contents include: an exploration of meter and its performance - the prosody of English speech -- the normal ways in which material is structured and patterned into blank verse, with its essential metrical and prosodic variations from the prototype, discussing ways in which those variations are performed -- the 'short' pentameter, a feature more or less unique to Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic verse, with its innovative use of silent beats and silent offbeats -- considering how to recognize and perform such lacunae and how they function as performance indicators -- the breaks and pauses within lines, and transitions between lines - how they work in the theatre, how to recognize them, and how they are performed -- other kinds of spoken verse in the plays -- how to explore systematically, through metrical and prosodic analysis, the possibilities of the verse for performance -- appendices that cover the pronunciation - specifically, the stress-pattern - of words that differ in Shakespeare's English and the pronunciation of names in the plays |
| Analysis |
Australian |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references |
| Subject |
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Dramatic production.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Language.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Literary style.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Technique.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Dramatic production.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Language.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Literary style.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Technique.
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Iambic pentameter.
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| ISBN |
9781921867811 (paperback) |
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