Papers by Michele Marrapodi
Cahiers Élisabéthains, 2008
In many of his stage settings Shakespeare appears to be obsessed by the idea, image, or concept o... more In many of his stage settings Shakespeare appears to be obsessed by the idea, image, or concept of the body in its multiple literal and figurative aspects and by the dramaturgical potentiality of the language of corporeality. The rhetoric of the body does in fact lend itself to an impressive series of striking theatrical forms since it is innate to the physicality of performance and to the natural \u2018spectacle\u2019 of the dramatic actio. What indubitably makes the corporeal semantics of Shakespeare\u2019s language even more fertile is the social, political, and ideological value acquired by this kind of rhetoric in the culture of the early Renaissance. In the history plays in particular the political exploitation of the language of the body becomes identified with the very idea of the state and linked to concepts of continuity and social order, as also to values of ethnicity and national identity. For although a macrotextual reading of the two tetralogies confirms the epic nature of Shakespeare\u2019s approach to English history, the blood of the nation shed in the Wars of the Roses is in many cases considered in the sense of a rightful curse, the origin of which was the sacrilegious dethronement of Richard II. But if, for Bolingbroke, \u201cThe body of our kingdom\u201d (3.1.37) is infected by rebellion, young Hal can predict to the Lord Chief Justice that \u201cthe great body of our state may go / In equal rank with the best-governed nation (2 Henry IV, 5.2.135-36) and, ultimately, a kingdom purified by pardon will be restored: \u201cI Richard\u2019s body have interred new / And on it have bestowed more contrite tears / Than from it issued forc\ue8d drops of blood\u201d (Henry V, 4.1.292-94). It is however in the Roman plays (as in the satire by Juvenal selected as the eponymous compendium of this essay) and in the later works associated with Latinity and Italian humanistic culture, such as the romances, that the idea of corporeality additionally acquires a specific moral usage, realistically embracing the virtues of romanitas or making them emerge from a dialectic between opposing values. Performing a kind of translatio imperii between principles of civilization and dynastic continuity from ancient Rome to Renaissance London, the playwright exorcizes domestic anxieties of political disgregation and presents a patriotic ideal of national sovereignty. The aim of this essay is to exemplify this theme by examining in detail some passages in Coriolanus and Cymbeline
Cahiers Élisabéthains, Oct 1, 1998
Renaissance Quarterly, 2011
Routledge eBooks, Mar 5, 2019
Cahiers Élisabéthains, Oct 1, 1995
Cahiers Élisabéthains, Apr 1, 1994
Eight volumes on various subjects and authors-either monographs or fulllength studies on differen... more Eight volumes on various subjects and authors-either monographs or fulllength studies on different topics-a few collections of essays, a number of offprints of articles from journals, some bilingual editions of Shakespeare, and a couple of reference works represent the total amount of Italian critical material received during the year. Certainly it is a small quantity compared to the intense critical activity in the field of Elizabethan literature in the years under review. But it presents-together with the numerous volumes, collections, articles and editions published in Italy since 1988 and reviewed in this journal-a wide-ranging bulk of items which are sufficient enough to draw, with an acceptable level of certainty, a first, general conclusion regarding the present state and prospects of Elizabethan studies in Italy. On the whole, it is possible to discern a stimulating process of-or, rather, a tendency towards-theoretical discourse, most notably on methodology and critical practice, whereas more traditional forms of historical and philological investigations are gradually losing ground. Italian criticism today seems to be, as it were, in search of a novel phase of ideological 'self-fashioning' in order to pursue a re-established identity inside changing cultural traditions. This attempt can hardly be successful in the short term, and we are facing in Italy, as well as in Europe and on the other side of the Atlantic, a rich and-to my mind-extremely fruitful period of intense intercultural exchange, criss-crossing differing literary schools of different nations. This survey of Italian contributions to Elizabethan literature covers a two-year span, supplementing my previous work ("Elizabethan Studies in Italy in 1989 and 1990", CE, 41, 1992, pp. 39-52) with a few references to the latest entries of 1990, and discussing the new ones of 1991 and early 1992. Since this review article is mostly written in the light of works received, it should obviously be emphasised that coverage must not be considered either complete or selective. As usual, full-length studies will be dealt with first, then collections of essays and lastly articles from journals. A brief, final section will also deal with textual editions, translations and reference books. Abbreviations for the titles of Shakespeare's works follow those adopted in the Shakespeare Quarterly bibliography.
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Papers by Michele Marrapodi