Title Emotional excess on the Shakespearean stage : passion's slaves / Bridget Escolme

Published London ; New York : Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2014

Click on the following:
Drama Online
Knowledge Unlatched

Copies

Description 1 online resource (343 pages) : illustrations Series Critical companions Critical companions (London, England) Contents "A brain that leads my use of anger": choler and the politics of spatial production -- "Do you mock old age, you rogues" : excessive laughter, cruelty and compassion -- "Give me excess of it": love, virtue and excessive pleasure in All's well that ends well and Antony and Cleopatra -- Stop your sobbing: grief, melancholy and moderation -- Conclusion: emotional agendas Summary Emotional Excess on the Shakespearean Stage demonstrates the links made between excess of emotion and madness in the early modern period. It argues that the ways in which today's popular and theatrical cultures judge how much is too much can distort our understanding of early modern drama and theatre. It argues that permitting the excesses of the early modern drama onto the contemporary stage might free actors and audiences alike from assumptions that in order to engage with the drama of the past, its characters must be just like us. The book deals with characters in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries who are sad for too long, or angry to the point of irrationality; people who laugh when they shouldn't or make their audiences do so; people whose selfhood has broken down into an excess of fragmentary extremes and who are labelled mad. It is about moments in the theatre when excessive emotion is rewarded and applauded - and about moments when the expression of emotion is in excess of what is socially acceptable: embarrassing, shameful, unsettling or insane. The book explores the broader cultures of emotion that produce these theatrical moments, and the theatre's role in regulating and extending the acceptable expression of emotion. It is concerned with the acting of excessive emotion and with acting emotion excessively. And it asks how these excesses are produced or erased, give pleasure or pain, in versions of early modern drama in theatre, film and television today. Plays discussed include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Spanish Tragedy, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, and Coriolanus Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Print version record Subject Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stage history. SUBJECT Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 fast Subject Emotions in literature. English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism Theater -- England -- History -- 16th century Theater -- England -- History -- 17th century Theatre studies. DRAMA -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Emotions in literature English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan Theater England Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781408179680 1408179687 9781408179703 1408179709 9781408179666 1408179660

  Permalink