The notion of fragility is a pervasive one in Western culture. Considering its appearance in earl... more The notion of fragility is a pervasive one in Western culture. Considering its appearance in early modern texts can help us to understand the history of fragility, as an idea, metaphor and feeling. The relationship between humans and breakable things is used as a metaphor that recognizes human limitations in body or mind. This essay begins with one peculiar instance of fragility from Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens before analysing other examples in early modern culture. It ends by making a few tentative propositions regarding the relationships between literature, material culture and the representations of human fragility.
A cardiff university festivals research group report Sylw ar Wyl Gerddoriaeth SWn 2016 Adroddiad ... more A cardiff university festivals research group report Sylw ar Wyl Gerddoriaeth SWn 2016 Adroddiad am wyliau cerddorol gan grWp ymchwil o Brifysgol Caerdydd
English Studies: A Journal of English Literature and Language, 94.3 313-330, May 2013
That “Derrida’s writing borders on being unreadable” has been maintained by several academics, jo... more That “Derrida’s writing borders on being unreadable” has been maintained by several academics, journalists and students. This essay considers this reaction to Jacques Derrida’s writing in relation to a broader history of wordplay and puns. Using Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a starting point followed by the infamous letter to The Times that accused Derrida of “logical phallusies”, it argues that if Derrida’s writing does border on being unreadable, then, this is the condition of all writing. The essay suggests that rather than suppressing the spectres of Derrida in Shakespeare studies, we should welcome back the aspects of his work that help us to “read and write in the space or heritage of Shakespeare”.
The figure of the Fool is often read as a symbol of theatrical performance, but this essay briefl... more The figure of the Fool is often read as a symbol of theatrical performance, but this essay briefly explores the theatrical symbolism of Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida and Cordelia in King Lear. It argues that Shakespeare’s characterisation of these three women can be seen to foreground issues of theatrical value and currency: Portia’s characterisation invites the audience to reflect on the power of a (financed) theatre; the characterisation of Cressida negotiates the social and economic proximity of the theatre and the brothel; and, in Cordelia, King Lear seems to bewail the apparent failure of theatre to communicate its value. The essay thus responds to critical thinking on the making of theatrical value, the staging of performance, and the question of Shakespeare’s own artistic autonomy.
Co-authored with François-Xavier Gleyzon, this is the guest editors' introduction to the second s... more Co-authored with François-Xavier Gleyzon, this is the guest editors' introduction to the second special issue on Shakespeare and Theory.
W .R. Elton explains that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has “been estimated [to contain] twi... more W .R. Elton explains that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has “been estimated [to contain] twice as many images of food, cooking and related matters as in any other of its author’s works”. This may seem surprising, until we realise that the play utilises the language of food to create a poetics of expectation and taste. Although Thersites’ performances are figured as a “cheese” to aid Achilles’ “digestion” that should be “served in to [his] table”, on the whole the drama is actually not consumed immediately by the audience. Rather, in a confusion of the senses, food becomes a visual metaphor for thinking an audience’s appetite for a play and other matters of taste. The audience is invited to watch Troilus and Cressida as a monster that eats up, in its jaws, the notion of chivalry and “glorious deeds” that past versions of the story – in epic and romance – had been so keen to emphasise; it is these past traditions, the prologue promises, which “may be digested in a play”. The paper seeks to discover whether the play leaves us with “fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics” of past literature, or if Shakespeare was cooking up something else.
W. R. Elton explique que Troilus and Cressida comporte deux fois plus de références à la nourriture, à la cuisine et aux arts de la table que n’importe quelle autre pièce de Shakespeare. Cela peut sembler surprenant de prime abord, pourtant force est de constater que cette pièce utilise le vocabulaire de la nourriture pour créer une poétique de l’attente et du goût. Bien que le comportement de Thersite soit qualifié de « fromage » devant être « servi à la table d’Achille » pour favoriser sa « digestion », la pièce n’est pas consommée immédiatement par ses spectateurs. Dans une confusion des sens, la nourriture devient une métaphore visuelle représentant l’appétit dramatique des spectateurs ainsi que diverses affaires de goût. Ceux-ci sont invités à considérer Troilus and Cressida comme un monstre qui dévore entre ses mâchoires la notion de chevalerie et les faits d’armes que de plus anciennes versions de l’histoire – héritées des épopées et des romans courtois – ont cherché à valoriser. Le prologue nous promet que ces traditions du passé vont être « digérées dans la pièce ». Cette étude vise à découvrir si cette pièce accommode seulement les quelques « restes, fragments et reliques graisseuses » du passé, ou si Shakespeare avait à l’esprit de mijoter une tout autre chose.
"This essay focuses on the role of the author in Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play that is hi... more "This essay focuses on the role of the author in Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play that is highly sensitive to the role of the book in shaping expectations
of its theatre audience. The argument takes from Lukas Erne
the notion that when Shakespeare wrote many of his plays, he was
aware that they were making their way into print, but aims to qualify the
idea of Shakespeare as a literary dramatist who arranges his work for
publication by considering the ways in which Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play is already literary to begin with. Focusing on the scene in
which Achilles and Ulysses discuss an author and his book, it explores
the poetics of reflection that seems to be at work between characters,
authors, and audiences, the page and the stage. Emphasising ways in
which Shakespeare responds to Jonson’s construction of an author, the
essay questions the distinction between Shakespeare as the author of
strictly theatrical or literary texts by considering how the book can be
performative and the theatre literary."
This study centres on the promises that the first printed paratexts of Troilus and Cressida seem ... more This study centres on the promises that the first printed paratexts of Troilus and Cressida seem to be making before the action of the play begins. These promises are not identical to the promises made between people or characters, but, like these promises, they create expectations and make associations. This exploration, therefore, begins by taking “Sonnet 107” as an example of a text that makes promises, in order to set up the notion of promising texts. It then focuses on the Sonnets’ dedication, before moving on to consider the title pages and the epistle to Troilus and Cressida. Finally, it attempts to make sense of the culinary terms in the paratexts to Troilus and Cressida by using the Folio prologue to the play and the Odcombian Banquet to show that readers’ and playgoers’ experiences were often imagined as a matter of taste that seem linked to a burgeoning consumer culture.
Hamlet was first performed at the Globe around 1600. According to Andrew Gurr, apple-wives, citiz... more Hamlet was first performed at the Globe around 1600. According to Andrew Gurr, apple-wives, citizen-wives, fishwives, ladies and whores were known to attend commercial theatres. But on stage there remained only male actors, so that the female gender had to be assumed by boy actors for parts such as Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. At this level of performance, gender can be assumed, constructed, and exchanged. Troilus and Cressida (c. 1601-2) was probably performed at the Inns of Court, where a very different audience of law students and barristers gathered. In Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida, the women take on the roles of both actor and audience, as the women view the men onstage and each other, while being watched by the offstage audience. The female characters’ watchfulness, however, is performed by male actors, while at the Inns of Court it has often been assumed that women were not invited. This essay tackles the significance of boy-actors assuming a female gender by considering women as audience within the fiction of the plays and even some figures who cross gender boundaries while stepping onto the stage or out of the play. Part one shifts from possible theatre audiences in London to fictional audiences within Hamlet; part two moves from considering Cressida as an audience figure to briefly examine the possibility of women being present at an Inns of Court performance.
Shakespeare Bulletin, a peer-reviewed journal of performance criticism and scholarship, provides ... more Shakespeare Bulletin, a peer-reviewed journal of performance criticism and scholarship, provides commentary on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama through feature articles, theatre and film reviews, and book reviews. Begun in 1982 as the organ of the New York Shakespeare Society, which became the Columbia University Seminar, the journal formerly appeared bimonthly; since 1990 it has been appearing as a quarterly. In 1992, it incorporated Shakespeare on Film Newsletter, which began publication in 1976. Shakespeare Bulletin’s theatre coverage serves as a record of production in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and throughout the world.
The notion of fragility is a pervasive one in Western culture. Considering its appearance in earl... more The notion of fragility is a pervasive one in Western culture. Considering its appearance in early modern texts can help us to understand the history of fragility, as an idea, metaphor and feeling. The relationship between humans and breakable things is used as a metaphor that recognizes human limitations in body or mind. This essay begins with one peculiar instance of fragility from Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens before analysing other examples in early modern culture. It ends by making a few tentative propositions regarding the relationships between literature, material culture and the representations of human fragility.
A cardiff university festivals research group report Sylw ar Wyl Gerddoriaeth SWn 2016 Adroddiad ... more A cardiff university festivals research group report Sylw ar Wyl Gerddoriaeth SWn 2016 Adroddiad am wyliau cerddorol gan grWp ymchwil o Brifysgol Caerdydd
English Studies: A Journal of English Literature and Language, 94.3 313-330, May 2013
That “Derrida’s writing borders on being unreadable” has been maintained by several academics, jo... more That “Derrida’s writing borders on being unreadable” has been maintained by several academics, journalists and students. This essay considers this reaction to Jacques Derrida’s writing in relation to a broader history of wordplay and puns. Using Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a starting point followed by the infamous letter to The Times that accused Derrida of “logical phallusies”, it argues that if Derrida’s writing does border on being unreadable, then, this is the condition of all writing. The essay suggests that rather than suppressing the spectres of Derrida in Shakespeare studies, we should welcome back the aspects of his work that help us to “read and write in the space or heritage of Shakespeare”.
The figure of the Fool is often read as a symbol of theatrical performance, but this essay briefl... more The figure of the Fool is often read as a symbol of theatrical performance, but this essay briefly explores the theatrical symbolism of Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida and Cordelia in King Lear. It argues that Shakespeare’s characterisation of these three women can be seen to foreground issues of theatrical value and currency: Portia’s characterisation invites the audience to reflect on the power of a (financed) theatre; the characterisation of Cressida negotiates the social and economic proximity of the theatre and the brothel; and, in Cordelia, King Lear seems to bewail the apparent failure of theatre to communicate its value. The essay thus responds to critical thinking on the making of theatrical value, the staging of performance, and the question of Shakespeare’s own artistic autonomy.
Co-authored with François-Xavier Gleyzon, this is the guest editors' introduction to the second s... more Co-authored with François-Xavier Gleyzon, this is the guest editors' introduction to the second special issue on Shakespeare and Theory.
W .R. Elton explains that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has “been estimated [to contain] twi... more W .R. Elton explains that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has “been estimated [to contain] twice as many images of food, cooking and related matters as in any other of its author’s works”. This may seem surprising, until we realise that the play utilises the language of food to create a poetics of expectation and taste. Although Thersites’ performances are figured as a “cheese” to aid Achilles’ “digestion” that should be “served in to [his] table”, on the whole the drama is actually not consumed immediately by the audience. Rather, in a confusion of the senses, food becomes a visual metaphor for thinking an audience’s appetite for a play and other matters of taste. The audience is invited to watch Troilus and Cressida as a monster that eats up, in its jaws, the notion of chivalry and “glorious deeds” that past versions of the story – in epic and romance – had been so keen to emphasise; it is these past traditions, the prologue promises, which “may be digested in a play”. The paper seeks to discover whether the play leaves us with “fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics” of past literature, or if Shakespeare was cooking up something else.
W. R. Elton explique que Troilus and Cressida comporte deux fois plus de références à la nourriture, à la cuisine et aux arts de la table que n’importe quelle autre pièce de Shakespeare. Cela peut sembler surprenant de prime abord, pourtant force est de constater que cette pièce utilise le vocabulaire de la nourriture pour créer une poétique de l’attente et du goût. Bien que le comportement de Thersite soit qualifié de « fromage » devant être « servi à la table d’Achille » pour favoriser sa « digestion », la pièce n’est pas consommée immédiatement par ses spectateurs. Dans une confusion des sens, la nourriture devient une métaphore visuelle représentant l’appétit dramatique des spectateurs ainsi que diverses affaires de goût. Ceux-ci sont invités à considérer Troilus and Cressida comme un monstre qui dévore entre ses mâchoires la notion de chevalerie et les faits d’armes que de plus anciennes versions de l’histoire – héritées des épopées et des romans courtois – ont cherché à valoriser. Le prologue nous promet que ces traditions du passé vont être « digérées dans la pièce ». Cette étude vise à découvrir si cette pièce accommode seulement les quelques « restes, fragments et reliques graisseuses » du passé, ou si Shakespeare avait à l’esprit de mijoter une tout autre chose.
"This essay focuses on the role of the author in Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play that is hi... more "This essay focuses on the role of the author in Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play that is highly sensitive to the role of the book in shaping expectations
of its theatre audience. The argument takes from Lukas Erne
the notion that when Shakespeare wrote many of his plays, he was
aware that they were making their way into print, but aims to qualify the
idea of Shakespeare as a literary dramatist who arranges his work for
publication by considering the ways in which Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play is already literary to begin with. Focusing on the scene in
which Achilles and Ulysses discuss an author and his book, it explores
the poetics of reflection that seems to be at work between characters,
authors, and audiences, the page and the stage. Emphasising ways in
which Shakespeare responds to Jonson’s construction of an author, the
essay questions the distinction between Shakespeare as the author of
strictly theatrical or literary texts by considering how the book can be
performative and the theatre literary."
This study centres on the promises that the first printed paratexts of Troilus and Cressida seem ... more This study centres on the promises that the first printed paratexts of Troilus and Cressida seem to be making before the action of the play begins. These promises are not identical to the promises made between people or characters, but, like these promises, they create expectations and make associations. This exploration, therefore, begins by taking “Sonnet 107” as an example of a text that makes promises, in order to set up the notion of promising texts. It then focuses on the Sonnets’ dedication, before moving on to consider the title pages and the epistle to Troilus and Cressida. Finally, it attempts to make sense of the culinary terms in the paratexts to Troilus and Cressida by using the Folio prologue to the play and the Odcombian Banquet to show that readers’ and playgoers’ experiences were often imagined as a matter of taste that seem linked to a burgeoning consumer culture.
Hamlet was first performed at the Globe around 1600. According to Andrew Gurr, apple-wives, citiz... more Hamlet was first performed at the Globe around 1600. According to Andrew Gurr, apple-wives, citizen-wives, fishwives, ladies and whores were known to attend commercial theatres. But on stage there remained only male actors, so that the female gender had to be assumed by boy actors for parts such as Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. At this level of performance, gender can be assumed, constructed, and exchanged. Troilus and Cressida (c. 1601-2) was probably performed at the Inns of Court, where a very different audience of law students and barristers gathered. In Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida, the women take on the roles of both actor and audience, as the women view the men onstage and each other, while being watched by the offstage audience. The female characters’ watchfulness, however, is performed by male actors, while at the Inns of Court it has often been assumed that women were not invited. This essay tackles the significance of boy-actors assuming a female gender by considering women as audience within the fiction of the plays and even some figures who cross gender boundaries while stepping onto the stage or out of the play. Part one shifts from possible theatre audiences in London to fictional audiences within Hamlet; part two moves from considering Cressida as an audience figure to briefly examine the possibility of women being present at an Inns of Court performance.
Shakespeare Bulletin, a peer-reviewed journal of performance criticism and scholarship, provides ... more Shakespeare Bulletin, a peer-reviewed journal of performance criticism and scholarship, provides commentary on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama through feature articles, theatre and film reviews, and book reviews. Begun in 1982 as the organ of the New York Shakespeare Society, which became the Columbia University Seminar, the journal formerly appeared bimonthly; since 1990 it has been appearing as a quarterly. In 1992, it incorporated Shakespeare on Film Newsletter, which began publication in 1976. Shakespeare Bulletin’s theatre coverage serves as a record of production in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and throughout the world.
Freud suggested that in The Merchant of Venice the caskets are “symbols of the essential of femin... more Freud suggested that in The Merchant of Venice the caskets are “symbols of the essential of femininity, hence of woman herself”. Quoting this passage, Bourdieu noticed how in Flaubert’s A Sentimental Education a silver casket is transferred between three women: in the novel, he argues, the significance of the casket “involves a homologous social scheme as well, to wit, the opposition between art and money”. According to Bourdieu, the three women come to be associated with different literary fields. Thus, Mme Arnoux might represent high art, while “mercenary art, […] represented by bourgeois theatre [is] associated with the figure of Mme Dambreuse, and minor mercenary art, represented by vaudeville, cabaret or the serial novel, [is] evoked by Rosanette”. Flaubert’s novel invites its readers to reflect on artistic fields. Shakespeare’s work can also be seen in a similar light, and a comparable technique seems to be noticeable when women are associated with performance in the plays.
The character of the fool is often read as a symbol of the theatre, but this paper briefly explores the theatrical symbolism of Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida and Cordelia in King Lear. It argues that Shakespeare’s characterisation of these three women can be seen to foreground issues of theatrical value and currency: Portia’s characterisation invites the audience to reflect on the power of a (financed) theatre; the characterisation of Cressida negotiates the theme of the theatre as prostitution; and, in Cordelia, King Lear seems to bewail the apparent failure of theatre to communicate its value. The paper thus responds to critical thinking on the making of theatrical value (Paul Yachnin), fictions of cultural production (Patrick Cheney), and the question of Shakespeare’s autonomy (Stephen Greenblatt / Richard Wilson).
Returning from his trip around Wales at the age of 74, John Taylor a.k.a. The Water-Poet spent th... more Returning from his trip around Wales at the age of 74, John Taylor a.k.a. The Water-Poet spent the final weekend of August 1652 at the village of Barnsley, about sixteen miles from Gloucester, his hometown. Taylor writes in his published travel diary that “Of all the places in England and Wales that I have travelled to, this village of Barnsley doth most strictly observe the Lord’s day, or Sunday”; he goes on to inform his readers of the doubly transgressive actions of two inhabitants:
two women who had beene at church both before and after noone, did but walke into the fields for their recreation, and they were put to their choice, either to pay sixpence apiece (for prophane walking,) or to be laid one houre in the stocks; and the peevish willfull women (though they were able enough to pay) to save their money and jest out the matter, lay both by the heeles merrily one houre.
Whether this event occurred as reported or not, issues of transmission and transgression are writ large in Taylor’s story; the implication seems to be that it was expected the women would want to pay the fine rather than be humiliated, although according to Taylor the women had the last laugh. The paper will contextualise this passage in terms of Taylor’s often entertaining travel writing – and the larger representation of Puritans and “willfull women” – in order to address the implications for Taylor’s account of apparent transgression through punishment.
Historical, theatrical and literary precedents set up audience expectations for those in the know... more Historical, theatrical and literary precedents set up audience expectations for those in the know. Many audience members, for example, would be aware while watching a play about Julius Caesar that he was assassinated. Similarly, in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, audiences who had read Chaucer would know that Cressida apparently breaks her faith in past versions; if audiences had seen the Admiral’s Men stage Cressida as a leper, then they might expect her to meet a similar fate in the King’s Men’s production too. The tension of expectation is epitomised in Richard III in the figure of Queen Margaret. As some of the audience would know, by the time of the events of the play the real Margaret was dead; the Margaret we see onstage is both an anachronistic and unhistorical character. The first part of this paper engages with the historical expectations which are deliberately unfulfilled in Richard III and examines how the ghostly onstage presence of the dead Margaret unsettles the boundaries of historical drama. The second part addresses literary precedents in Troilus and Cressida, focusing on the figure of Cassandra who – as a prophesier – thinks she knows what is to come; it seeks to draw some conclusions about the relationships in the play between the promise of the characters, audience expectations and the potential for dramatic failure.
W.R. Elton explains that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has “been estimated [to contain] twic... more W.R. Elton explains that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has “been estimated [to contain] twice as many images of food, cooking and related matters as in any other of its author’s works”. This may seem surprising, until we realise that the play utilises the language of food to create a poetics of expectation and taste. In the second act, Agamemnon says of Achilles:
all his virtues […………………………….…] Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss, Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish, Are like to rot untasted.
The simile is part of a poetics that visualises spectatorship and expectation in culinary terms. Although Thersites’s performances are figured as a “cheese” to aid Achilles’ “digestion” that should be “served in to [his] table”, on the whole the drama is actually not consumed immediately by the audience. Rather, in a confusion of the senses, food becomes a visual metaphor for thinking an audience’s appetite for a play and other matters of taste. The audience is invited to watch Troilus and Cressida as a monster that eats up, in its mastic jaws, the notion of chivalry and “glorious deeds” that past versions of the story – in epic and romance – had been so keen to emphasise; it is these past traditions, the prologue promises, which “may be digested in a play”. The paper seeks to discover whether the play leaves us with “fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics” of past literature, or if Shakespeare was cooking up something else.
This paper shies away from the overt promises the characters make in order to focus on the expres... more This paper shies away from the overt promises the characters make in order to focus on the expression “in faith”, used most by Cressida in the play. It examines the way that this quasi-oath suggests both a subject who promises, and, at the same time, a figure who performs. It considers the way in which the strategy of having characters that promise suggests an interior psychology and intentions, before going on to suggest that this performance is caught awkwardly in the language of theatricality which is seemingly akin to feigning, falseness or protesting too much. In a second part it explores how promises on the stage and “in real life” are always caught to a degree in a language of performance which often represses the theatricality of the promise so that characters or people can mean what they say. Using Sartre’s notion of bad faith, this part explores the performative dimension of being and promises, showing how performing ourselves can be intrinsic to who we are, while at the same time, this performance is always in danger of being just an act.
Organizers: Johann Gregory, Paul Hamilton, Anne Sophie Refskou, Timo Uotinen, Richard Wilson.
Pl... more Organizers: Johann Gregory, Paul Hamilton, Anne Sophie Refskou, Timo Uotinen, Richard Wilson.
Please submit abstracts and brief CVs, or register as an auditor, by emailing the organizers at [email protected] before 1 May, 2015 (auditors may register before 15 May)
Editor with François-Xavier Gleyzon:
Shakespeare and the Future of Theory convenes internatio... more Editor with François-Xavier Gleyzon:
Shakespeare and the Future of Theory convenes internationally renowned Shakespeare scholars, and scholars of the Early Modern period, and presents, discusses, and evaluates the most recent research and information concerning the future of theory in relation to Shakespeare’s corpus. Original in its aim and scope, the book argues for the critical importance of thinking Shakespeare now, and provides extensive reflections and profound insights into the dialogues between Shakespeare and Theory. Contributions explore Shakespeare through the lens of design theory, queer theory, psychoanalysis, Derrida and Foucault, amongst others, and offer an innovative interdisciplinary analysis of Shakespeare’s work. This book was originally published as two special issues of English Studies.
This page provides links to the website for this project and further information. In a nutshell, ... more This page provides links to the website for this project and further information. In a nutshell, I have produced an annotated modern-spelling edition of John Taylor's account of his journey around Wales in the summer of 1652, and I've put this on a website with other resources on the travel writer. I've then been using social media to share news about his journey in real time as he goes on his eight week journey.
Early Modern Editing Experiments emerges from my interest in book history, and the early modern p... more Early Modern Editing Experiments emerges from my interest in book history, and the early modern publications of John Taylor the Water Poet (1578-53) in particular. It also arises from my desire to see more Taylor available in places other than EEBO (great though it is) and specialist libraries. It’s exciting to be working on the Water Poet for this project because he was very keen on reaching a wide audience for his work, and so it seems right to be experimenting with the possibilities of digital humanities in order to enable more people to read the wonderful – and idiosyncratic – work of John Taylor.
Early Modern Editing Experiments emerges from my interest in book history, and the early modern p... more Early Modern Editing Experiments emerges from my interest in book history, and the early modern publications of John Taylor the Water Poet (1578-53) in particular. It also arises from my desire to see more Taylor available in places other than EEBO (great though it is) and specialist libraries. It’s exciting to be working on the Water Poet for this project because he was very keen on reaching a wide audience for his work, and so it seems right to be experimenting with the possibilities of digital humanities in order to enable more people to read the wonderful – and idiosyncratic – work of John Taylor.
I recently joined the Creative Economy team as a Research Associate to support the development of... more I recently joined the Creative Economy team as a Research Associate to support the development of the Creative Cardiff Research Network (formerly called ‘Creative @ Cardiff’). Currently I am exploring the involvement and interest in research relating to the creative economy across Cardiff University, with help from the Creative Economy team. Professor Steve Blandford, Emeritus Professor at the University of South Wales, and Professor Ian Hargreaves are advising on this work.
This month Steve and I have been in contact and meeting with a number of researchers across the university, and I am keen to hear from more academics at Cardiff...
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Papers by Johann Gregory
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2013.778622?src=recsys
W. R. Elton explique que Troilus and Cressida comporte deux fois plus de références à la nourriture, à la cuisine et aux arts de la table que n’importe quelle autre pièce de Shakespeare. Cela peut sembler surprenant de prime abord, pourtant force est de constater que cette pièce utilise le vocabulaire de la nourriture pour créer une poétique de l’attente et du goût. Bien que le comportement de Thersite soit qualifié de « fromage » devant être « servi à la table d’Achille » pour favoriser sa « digestion », la pièce n’est pas consommée immédiatement par ses spectateurs. Dans une confusion des sens, la nourriture devient une métaphore visuelle représentant l’appétit dramatique des spectateurs ainsi que diverses affaires de goût. Ceux-ci sont invités à considérer Troilus and Cressida comme un monstre qui dévore entre ses mâchoires la notion de chevalerie et les faits d’armes que de plus anciennes versions de l’histoire – héritées des épopées et des romans courtois – ont cherché à valoriser. Le prologue nous promet que ces traditions du passé vont être « digérées dans la pièce ». Cette étude vise à découvrir si cette pièce accommode seulement les quelques « restes, fragments et reliques graisseuses » du passé, ou si Shakespeare avait à l’esprit de mijoter une tout autre chose.
stage-play that is highly sensitive to the role of the book in shaping expectations
of its theatre audience. The argument takes from Lukas Erne
the notion that when Shakespeare wrote many of his plays, he was
aware that they were making their way into print, but aims to qualify the
idea of Shakespeare as a literary dramatist who arranges his work for
publication by considering the ways in which Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play is already literary to begin with. Focusing on the scene in
which Achilles and Ulysses discuss an author and his book, it explores
the poetics of reflection that seems to be at work between characters,
authors, and audiences, the page and the stage. Emphasising ways in
which Shakespeare responds to Jonson’s construction of an author, the
essay questions the distinction between Shakespeare as the author of
strictly theatrical or literary texts by considering how the book can be
performative and the theatre literary."
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2013.778622?src=recsys
W. R. Elton explique que Troilus and Cressida comporte deux fois plus de références à la nourriture, à la cuisine et aux arts de la table que n’importe quelle autre pièce de Shakespeare. Cela peut sembler surprenant de prime abord, pourtant force est de constater que cette pièce utilise le vocabulaire de la nourriture pour créer une poétique de l’attente et du goût. Bien que le comportement de Thersite soit qualifié de « fromage » devant être « servi à la table d’Achille » pour favoriser sa « digestion », la pièce n’est pas consommée immédiatement par ses spectateurs. Dans une confusion des sens, la nourriture devient une métaphore visuelle représentant l’appétit dramatique des spectateurs ainsi que diverses affaires de goût. Ceux-ci sont invités à considérer Troilus and Cressida comme un monstre qui dévore entre ses mâchoires la notion de chevalerie et les faits d’armes que de plus anciennes versions de l’histoire – héritées des épopées et des romans courtois – ont cherché à valoriser. Le prologue nous promet que ces traditions du passé vont être « digérées dans la pièce ». Cette étude vise à découvrir si cette pièce accommode seulement les quelques « restes, fragments et reliques graisseuses » du passé, ou si Shakespeare avait à l’esprit de mijoter une tout autre chose.
stage-play that is highly sensitive to the role of the book in shaping expectations
of its theatre audience. The argument takes from Lukas Erne
the notion that when Shakespeare wrote many of his plays, he was
aware that they were making their way into print, but aims to qualify the
idea of Shakespeare as a literary dramatist who arranges his work for
publication by considering the ways in which Troilus and Cressida as a
stage-play is already literary to begin with. Focusing on the scene in
which Achilles and Ulysses discuss an author and his book, it explores
the poetics of reflection that seems to be at work between characters,
authors, and audiences, the page and the stage. Emphasising ways in
which Shakespeare responds to Jonson’s construction of an author, the
essay questions the distinction between Shakespeare as the author of
strictly theatrical or literary texts by considering how the book can be
performative and the theatre literary."
The character of the fool is often read as a symbol of the theatre, but this paper briefly explores the theatrical symbolism of Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida and Cordelia in King Lear. It argues that Shakespeare’s characterisation of these three women can be seen to foreground issues of theatrical value and currency: Portia’s characterisation invites the audience to reflect on the power of a (financed) theatre; the characterisation of Cressida negotiates the theme of the theatre as prostitution; and, in Cordelia, King Lear seems to bewail the apparent failure of theatre to communicate its value. The paper thus responds to critical thinking on the making of theatrical value (Paul Yachnin), fictions of cultural production (Patrick Cheney), and the question of Shakespeare’s autonomy (Stephen Greenblatt / Richard Wilson).
two women who had beene at church both before and after noone, did but walke into the fields for their recreation, and they were put to their choice, either to pay sixpence apiece (for prophane walking,) or to be laid one houre in the stocks; and the peevish willfull women (though they were able enough to pay) to save their money and jest out the matter, lay both by the heeles merrily one houre.
Whether this event occurred as reported or not, issues of transmission and transgression are writ large in Taylor’s story; the implication seems to be that it was expected the women would want to pay the fine rather than be humiliated, although according to Taylor the women had the last laugh. The paper will contextualise this passage in terms of Taylor’s often entertaining travel writing – and the larger representation of Puritans and “willfull women” – in order to address the implications for Taylor’s account of apparent transgression through punishment.
all his virtues
[…………………………….…]
Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss,
Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish,
Are like to rot untasted.
The simile is part of a poetics that visualises spectatorship and expectation in culinary terms. Although Thersites’s performances are figured as a “cheese” to aid Achilles’ “digestion” that should be “served in to [his] table”, on the whole the drama is actually not consumed immediately by the audience. Rather, in a confusion of the senses, food becomes a visual metaphor for thinking an audience’s appetite for a play and other matters of taste. The audience is invited to watch Troilus and Cressida as a monster that eats up, in its mastic jaws, the notion of chivalry and “glorious deeds” that past versions of the story – in epic and romance – had been so keen to emphasise; it is these past traditions, the prologue promises, which “may be digested in a play”. The paper seeks to discover whether the play leaves us with “fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics” of past literature, or if Shakespeare was cooking up something else.
Please submit abstracts and brief CVs, or register as an auditor, by emailing the organizers at [email protected] before 1 May, 2015 (auditors may register before 15 May)
Shakespeare and the Future of Theory convenes internationally renowned Shakespeare scholars, and scholars of the Early Modern period, and presents, discusses, and evaluates the most recent research and information concerning the future of theory in relation to Shakespeare’s corpus. Original in its aim and scope, the book argues for the critical importance of thinking Shakespeare now, and provides extensive reflections and profound insights into the dialogues between Shakespeare and Theory. Contributions explore Shakespeare through the lens of design theory, queer theory, psychoanalysis, Derrida and Foucault, amongst others, and offer an innovative interdisciplinary analysis of Shakespeare’s work. This book was originally published as two special issues of English Studies.
https://johntaylorwaterpoet.wixsite.com/home
This month Steve and I have been in contact and meeting with a number of researchers across the university, and I am keen to hear from more academics at Cardiff...