Shakespeare creates his own standard of time within The Winter's Tale through the sixteen year gap between the third and fourth acts and the inclusion of music. When one embraces this irregular portrayal of time it alters their way of thinking. This is beneficial in interpreting the play as a Romance and in engaging the play with creative productions. These new thought patterns can also fundamentally change the way one views their every-day reality. Most vitally, an altered thought pattern is essential for fully understanding the fantastical mysticism that characterizes the play.
Showing posts with label posted by Mikaela. Show all posts
Showing posts with label posted by Mikaela. Show all posts
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Mikaela Kemsley: "All in the Timing"
All in the Timing:
Shakespeare creates his own standard of time within The Winter's Tale through the sixteen year gap between the third and fourth acts and the inclusion of music. When one embraces this irregular portrayal of time it alters their way of thinking. This is beneficial in interpreting the play as a Romance and in engaging the play with creative productions. These new thought patterns can also fundamentally change the way one views their every-day reality. Most vitally, an altered thought pattern is essential for fully understanding the fantastical mysticism that characterizes the play.
Shakespeare creates his own standard of time within The Winter's Tale through the sixteen year gap between the third and fourth acts and the inclusion of music. When one embraces this irregular portrayal of time it alters their way of thinking. This is beneficial in interpreting the play as a Romance and in engaging the play with creative productions. These new thought patterns can also fundamentally change the way one views their every-day reality. Most vitally, an altered thought pattern is essential for fully understanding the fantastical mysticism that characterizes the play.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Gather round, it's story time!
Well... I have somewhat of an obsession with time which anyone who is close to me can tell you. So, I wrote my midterm paper around that theme and Dr. Burton told me when he read it that he felt it needed to be more than just a four page paper. So, while my final product was nothing like my midterm paper, it was the starting point for my research paper about time.
Time, however, is quite a broad category. Everything relates to it on some level or other, and so I found that I had a relatively broad thesis that could incorporate many different topics. On a research level, I loved this. I got to explore time's affect on memory, the seasons, music, Shakespeare as a business man... really anything I found interesting was fair game.
In actually writing the paper, however, this proved detrimental. I made sure everything related back to my thesis of course, but my paper was still kind of all over the place. In the end I had to make a last minute change to my thesis (which meant making a ton of changes to my paper) to make it more cohesive. This paper is still in the works to a degree, I've finished it but I'm still waiting to hear back about feedback and I may or may not need to revise it a little more tomorrow...
What I'd change in the future: It's ok to do some initial preliminary research before configuring a thesis, but it would've been a lot less effort to conjure a narrow, specific thesis before I did so much research. By the end of everything I probably wrote enough to make at least 3 10 page research papers, most of which I'm not even using.
Time, however, is quite a broad category. Everything relates to it on some level or other, and so I found that I had a relatively broad thesis that could incorporate many different topics. On a research level, I loved this. I got to explore time's affect on memory, the seasons, music, Shakespeare as a business man... really anything I found interesting was fair game.
In actually writing the paper, however, this proved detrimental. I made sure everything related back to my thesis of course, but my paper was still kind of all over the place. In the end I had to make a last minute change to my thesis (which meant making a ton of changes to my paper) to make it more cohesive. This paper is still in the works to a degree, I've finished it but I'm still waiting to hear back about feedback and I may or may not need to revise it a little more tomorrow...
What I'd change in the future: It's ok to do some initial preliminary research before configuring a thesis, but it would've been a lot less effort to conjure a narrow, specific thesis before I did so much research. By the end of everything I probably wrote enough to make at least 3 10 page research papers, most of which I'm not even using.
Learning Outcomes
So. The moment of truth where I figure out whether the effort and the stress was worth it:
1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
Breadth: We read a few works together as a class which expanded by breadth of Shakespeare understanding, though I feel the majority of my breadth actually came from reading other people's blog posts and research papers. Actually, before reading a research paper on a play I hadn't read I usually looked up the sparknote or Wikipedia summary quickly beforehand, skimming through it so I wasn't going in totally blind. It didn't take a ton of effort, but I actually ended up learning a lot from it.
Depth: I definitely have a thorough knowledge of The Winter's Tale now after reading it, seeing a performance of it, and writing my research paper on it. I also feel that I have a thorough understanding of Henry V now. Part of that is the result of reading it for this class and watching the movie with my sister who has an obsession with Kenneth Branagh, but it also conveniently coincided with two of my theater classes. I had to see the BYU production of Henry V,read the script for it, and write two papers on it for the theater classes. Also, there were multiple people in the class that wrote in reference to that play and I watched and tried to help as their papers developed. Actually, I'll be honest and say I don't think I want to watch Henry V again for a very very long time...
Performance: I actually already had a fair amount of performance background in Shakespeare before coming to the class, having been in multiple productions as an actress. Going to see productions though, rather than being in them, definitely gave me a new perspective. Also, I had seen movie productions of Shakespeares before, but before this class I feel my brain was pretty occupied by just following the plot. Now that I'm more familiarized it wasn't as difficult to follow the plot which enabled me to really start analyzing the movies. Talking about the movies in class helped with that a lot - the other students would bring up all sorts of things that I hadn't noticed.
Legacy: It was definitely beneficial to take this class at the same time as my theater history class. I got to look at Shakespeare within the context of Elizabethan theater, the theater that predated it, and the theater that followed it. This class also had a heavy social basis - I discovered when talking with friends/peers about this class how prevalent Shakespeare is in pop culture. Even people who had never read or seen any of his works could spit out famous Shakespeare quotes.
Analyze Shakespeare Critically: I definitely got some experience analyzing Shakespeare on a textual level, we had some posts on that and I also tried to incorporate analyzing the primary text in my final paper. I got some contextual experience with Shakespeare as well - thanks to a large degree to Lizy's paper :) A new and huge facet to analyzing Shakespeare for this class was through digital means: digital dialog, blogs, goodreads and other online communities etc. That took some getting used to for me, and I'm sure I'm still not fully digitally literate but I'm a whole lot further than I was at the beginning of this class. I'm not exactly a computer person so this wasn't an entirely enjoyable aspect of the class for me, but I know it was a good thing and I'm slightly less afraid of the internet now... In terms of literary lenses, I definitely looked at his work through the lens of feminism, especially when we were reading The Taming of the Shrew.
Engage Shakespeare Creatively: So I'm going to be honest: I was sadly disappointed at the lack of creative opportunity in this class. I definitely got that through the sonnet and I loved that. That was probably my favorite part of the whole semester. I guess I was just hoping we would do more creative projects like that/group performances etc. Granted, this is coming from an actress...
Share Shakespeare Meaningfully: I'll hopefully be able to do this through my research paper - I ended up changing my thesis last minute so I'm a little behind and haven't submitted it to be published, but once the paper is fully finished I plan on doing that. I definitely got to share Shakespeare via this blog and digital dialog, and through other online communities I started looking at when I started my research paper. Most fun for me was sharing just through conversation. My sister is quite the reader so I think she was ecstatic to have someone to analyze Shakespeare with, my friends who were in Shakespeare productions with me in the past and were in the recent BYU productions were excited to talk with me, and my theater professors even talked to me about Shakespeare!
Gain Digital Literacy: So... I hate computers. I'm the type of person that still brings a pen and paper to all her classes. With that said, I wasn't a huge fan of the whole "digital literacy" thing, but it was definitely beneficial. A digital medium allowed me to be able to communicate with enthusiasts and experts who I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I read a lot of my information for my research paper online, was able to post on blogs/forums, and e-mail others from online Shakespeare communities.
1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
Breadth: We read a few works together as a class which expanded by breadth of Shakespeare understanding, though I feel the majority of my breadth actually came from reading other people's blog posts and research papers. Actually, before reading a research paper on a play I hadn't read I usually looked up the sparknote or Wikipedia summary quickly beforehand, skimming through it so I wasn't going in totally blind. It didn't take a ton of effort, but I actually ended up learning a lot from it.
Depth: I definitely have a thorough knowledge of The Winter's Tale now after reading it, seeing a performance of it, and writing my research paper on it. I also feel that I have a thorough understanding of Henry V now. Part of that is the result of reading it for this class and watching the movie with my sister who has an obsession with Kenneth Branagh, but it also conveniently coincided with two of my theater classes. I had to see the BYU production of Henry V,read the script for it, and write two papers on it for the theater classes. Also, there were multiple people in the class that wrote in reference to that play and I watched and tried to help as their papers developed. Actually, I'll be honest and say I don't think I want to watch Henry V again for a very very long time...
Performance: I actually already had a fair amount of performance background in Shakespeare before coming to the class, having been in multiple productions as an actress. Going to see productions though, rather than being in them, definitely gave me a new perspective. Also, I had seen movie productions of Shakespeares before, but before this class I feel my brain was pretty occupied by just following the plot. Now that I'm more familiarized it wasn't as difficult to follow the plot which enabled me to really start analyzing the movies. Talking about the movies in class helped with that a lot - the other students would bring up all sorts of things that I hadn't noticed.
Legacy: It was definitely beneficial to take this class at the same time as my theater history class. I got to look at Shakespeare within the context of Elizabethan theater, the theater that predated it, and the theater that followed it. This class also had a heavy social basis - I discovered when talking with friends/peers about this class how prevalent Shakespeare is in pop culture. Even people who had never read or seen any of his works could spit out famous Shakespeare quotes.
Analyze Shakespeare Critically: I definitely got some experience analyzing Shakespeare on a textual level, we had some posts on that and I also tried to incorporate analyzing the primary text in my final paper. I got some contextual experience with Shakespeare as well - thanks to a large degree to Lizy's paper :) A new and huge facet to analyzing Shakespeare for this class was through digital means: digital dialog, blogs, goodreads and other online communities etc. That took some getting used to for me, and I'm sure I'm still not fully digitally literate but I'm a whole lot further than I was at the beginning of this class. I'm not exactly a computer person so this wasn't an entirely enjoyable aspect of the class for me, but I know it was a good thing and I'm slightly less afraid of the internet now... In terms of literary lenses, I definitely looked at his work through the lens of feminism, especially when we were reading The Taming of the Shrew.
Engage Shakespeare Creatively: So I'm going to be honest: I was sadly disappointed at the lack of creative opportunity in this class. I definitely got that through the sonnet and I loved that. That was probably my favorite part of the whole semester. I guess I was just hoping we would do more creative projects like that/group performances etc. Granted, this is coming from an actress...
Share Shakespeare Meaningfully: I'll hopefully be able to do this through my research paper - I ended up changing my thesis last minute so I'm a little behind and haven't submitted it to be published, but once the paper is fully finished I plan on doing that. I definitely got to share Shakespeare via this blog and digital dialog, and through other online communities I started looking at when I started my research paper. Most fun for me was sharing just through conversation. My sister is quite the reader so I think she was ecstatic to have someone to analyze Shakespeare with, my friends who were in Shakespeare productions with me in the past and were in the recent BYU productions were excited to talk with me, and my theater professors even talked to me about Shakespeare!
Gain Digital Literacy: So... I hate computers. I'm the type of person that still brings a pen and paper to all her classes. With that said, I wasn't a huge fan of the whole "digital literacy" thing, but it was definitely beneficial. A digital medium allowed me to be able to communicate with enthusiasts and experts who I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I read a lot of my information for my research paper online, was able to post on blogs/forums, and e-mail others from online Shakespeare communities.
Monday, April 15, 2013
changes... or not
when it comes right down to it, I like my topic but I'm not necessarily a huge fan of my thesis. tonight I came up with a new one:
There's never enough time in the day, right? Time surreptitiously slides past as obligations go unmet, events unattended, and aspirations unfulfilled, leaving many to grasp at empty hours long since passed. There are those that would argue though that there is too much time in a day: the sick wishing to die or children anxiously awaiting Christmas break. To them, there is too much time, an overabundance of it, crowding their lives and overflowing in frustration, anxiety, and impatience. Can time really be ticking away in the same seconds and hours for all these individuals? Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale would argue that it can't be. The play mocks the supposed constancy of time, creating its own time specific to the world of the play. Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and productions of it elucidate that time is not absolute but relative, and the passage of it cannot be defined by clocks, but only by individualized perception.
and in a perfect world I'd actually write that paper. Wish I had thought of that about a month ago instead of now...
There's never enough time in the day, right? Time surreptitiously slides past as obligations go unmet, events unattended, and aspirations unfulfilled, leaving many to grasp at empty hours long since passed. There are those that would argue though that there is too much time in a day: the sick wishing to die or children anxiously awaiting Christmas break. To them, there is too much time, an overabundance of it, crowding their lives and overflowing in frustration, anxiety, and impatience. Can time really be ticking away in the same seconds and hours for all these individuals? Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale would argue that it can't be. The play mocks the supposed constancy of time, creating its own time specific to the world of the play. Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and productions of it elucidate that time is not absolute but relative, and the passage of it cannot be defined by clocks, but only by individualized perception.
and in a perfect world I'd actually write that paper. Wish I had thought of that about a month ago instead of now...
Friday, April 12, 2013
IT LIVEEEESSSS!
Honestly, I wish I could spend a little more time with it, but... There comes a point where you've just got to decide you're done. Enjoy! and sorry the Works Cited is practically a paper within itself...
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3BxqhQTu_ynWHZJNWNqLUIwclk/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3BxqhQTu_ynWHZJNWNqLUIwclk/edit?usp=sharing
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
From the Writing Front
After receiving some helpful feedback from David and Rachel (Thanks so much to both of you!) I was able to identify some of major issues with my paper"
1. I hadn't clearly defined what I meant when I was talking about constraint and liberation, and as a result my paper wasn't as focused as I wanted it to be.
2. The "so what" is somewhat lacking, and more or less an afterthought than a driving aspect to my paper.
3. The writing needs to be cleaned up.
Last night, I went through and fixed (or at least tried to) point number one. I finally sat down and actually wrote my introduction, not actually changing my thesis per se, but clarifying what my thesis meant. With this new focus I had to go through my paper and identify which arguments coincided with my interpretations of "liberation" and constraint, which naturally led me to cut out a couple arguments that didn't really fit anymore. It shortened my paper which is something I needed to do, but I'll admit my heart bled as I was doing it, thinking of the time I had spent researching/writing...
Points 2 and 3 are yet to be resolved though I'm planning on heading to the writing center today, and hopefully that'll help on point 3.
One post/ step in the process I need to return to is publication venues. I have some ideas, sure, but I feel like I've only done a surface glance at the places I'm considering for publication. I need to spend some time and do a little bit of deeper digging/ be ready to send in some abstracts.
1. I hadn't clearly defined what I meant when I was talking about constraint and liberation, and as a result my paper wasn't as focused as I wanted it to be.
2. The "so what" is somewhat lacking, and more or less an afterthought than a driving aspect to my paper.
3. The writing needs to be cleaned up.
Last night, I went through and fixed (or at least tried to) point number one. I finally sat down and actually wrote my introduction, not actually changing my thesis per se, but clarifying what my thesis meant. With this new focus I had to go through my paper and identify which arguments coincided with my interpretations of "liberation" and constraint, which naturally led me to cut out a couple arguments that didn't really fit anymore. It shortened my paper which is something I needed to do, but I'll admit my heart bled as I was doing it, thinking of the time I had spent researching/writing...
Points 2 and 3 are yet to be resolved though I'm planning on heading to the writing center today, and hopefully that'll help on point 3.
One post/ step in the process I need to return to is publication venues. I have some ideas, sure, but I feel like I've only done a surface glance at the places I'm considering for publication. I need to spend some time and do a little bit of deeper digging/ be ready to send in some abstracts.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Hey world. Are you as interested in my writing as I am? Probably not...
Academic Conferences: I've actually had a lot of success looking into this. European Shakespeare Research Association is having a conference on Shakespeare and myth. I have a section in my paper about the connection between time and the prevailing feeling of mysticism/ magic within The Winter's Tale which I could tweek for this. I also found one about music and performance in Shakespeare, which would connect with the last couple paragraphs of my paper. Honestly I had a ton of research and thoughts on music I didn't get to put into my paper, so I'd love adjusting/ adding to my paper for this.
Academic Journal: This one proved somewhat more difficult for me. I found a journal called Chapter and Verse about the relationship between literature and music which would connect with some of my research, though I don't think they're accepting submissions. I'll send them an e-mail to clarify though.
Academic blogging: I've been using the No Sweat Shakespeare Blog in my research, and I discovered that they accept guest blog posts. Really it can be about anything Shakespeare related, so I could focus on any aspect of my paper. They do have length requirements though so I'd have to cut down my paper a lot.
Academic Journal: This one proved somewhat more difficult for me. I found a journal called Chapter and Verse about the relationship between literature and music which would connect with some of my research, though I don't think they're accepting submissions. I'll send them an e-mail to clarify though.
Academic blogging: I've been using the No Sweat Shakespeare Blog in my research, and I discovered that they accept guest blog posts. Really it can be about anything Shakespeare related, so I could focus on any aspect of my paper. They do have length requirements though so I'd have to cut down my paper a lot.
rough draft!
Some notes: I don't have an intro or a conclusion yet, so I just included some notes as to what I'm planning on putting in the intro/conclusion. There are still some things I have to work out, the writing isn't polished, and I have to read it through and put in a couple more in-text citations that need to be there. Biggest issue though: Once I finish my intro/conclusion it's going to be about 12 pages. Which is too long. Tell me which argument seems the weakest so I can cut it out!
Mikaela Kemsley
Dr. Gideon Burton
Shakespeare 382
3 April 2013
All in the Timing
Thesis: In his play, The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare utilizes the duality of time as being simultaneously constraining and liberating, both within the text and within his time.
When Time, the aptly named chorus, begins the fourth act by “sliding o’er” sixteen years of plot, it defines itself through use of binary oppositions, mirroring the similar opposition between the constraint and liberation of time. The chorus identifies itself, “I that please some, try all: both joy and terror/Of good and bad”(4:1:1-2). The pairs of pleasing and trying, joy and terror, and good and bad instantaneously set time apart as being paradoxical and self-contradictory, and they also coincide with the themes of constraint and liberation. Being pleased, good, and joy can readily be considered liberations from feelings of anger, pain, and negativity, while being tried, terror, and bad are constraints in one’s ability to experience positive emotions. In this sense, time literally is introducing itself at the beginning of the fourth act as being somewhat recondite and as being both liberating and constraining.
Time continues his speech at the beginning of the fourth act by skipping over sixteen years in the lives of the characters, bringing the plot to a point where Perdita has reached adulthood and Leontes has been pining over his deceased wife for sixteen years. This use of time is a liberation to the plot of the play, which consequently was a liberation to Shakespeare in producing a play that could be commercially successful in his time. Passing over sixteen years allows the story to depict the most engaging and salient points without the complicating use of flashback or excessive narration. In short, the time gap vastly improved the play’s entertainment value which was amenable to Shakespeare as a producer and a business man. Though this is oftentimes a less studied topic within the confines of an English classroom or within the presentations of a conference, Shakespeare was writing in an attempt not only to create art, but to sell tickets in his contracted theaters. In his book Writing for Performance, John Russell Brown cites this saying, “Whatever the subject of the dialogue, Shakespeare’s mind had access to the business of theater”(3). Russell goes on to point out that many of Shakespeare’s plays, if not all of them, have some reference to theatrical reception or even a direct appeal to the audience for a favorable reception, such as when Time asks for the audience’s indulgence in the fourth act, “Your patience allowing/ I turn my glass and give my scene such growing/ As you had slept between” (4.1.15-7). This effort to “crowd please” is also evidenced in The Winter’s Tale by the bear in act three scene three, which earned the play possibly the most famous stage exit ever written, “Exit, pursued by a bear”(3.3). While the bear isn’t wholly pertinent or necessary for the plot, it does incorporate an ostentatious element of spectacle that would’ve drawn in larger audiences for performances. Even a record of Shakespeare’s economic success with his performances would indicate his fruitful efforts in producing plays that were widely and appreciatively received by the public. Brown describes this, “The remarkable outline of Shakespeare’s career, as deduced from legal papers, account books, and other documentary evidence, argues for some quite exceptional drive behind his work in the theater…he was highly successful for more than twenty very productive years”(6). Clearly, Shakespeare intended his works to bring in an audience, perpetuate his reputation as a popular playwright, and keep the theaters that performed his work in business. Had Shakespeare not chosen to use an unnatural pattern of time, The Winter’s Play would’ve centered heavily on the uninteresting tale of Perdita being raised, or of Leontes lethargically mourning for sixteen years. Shakespeare’s goals of creating a commercially popular and successful work would’ve been, if not utterly insurmountable, at least arduous, and so the irregular use of time was a liberation to both the plot and Shakespeare’s business interests.
This isn’t to suggest, of course, that The Winter’s Tale was embraced by everyone in Shakespeare’s time or afterwards. While the play is able to present the most interesting aspects of the story and spectacle through its manipulation of time, this manipulation also flagrantly disregards Aristotle’s Unities, which constrained the play to the derision of scholars. After studying Ancient Greek and Roman theater, Aristotle established three vital rules that he felt a performance must adhere to in order to be successful: unity of place, unity of action, and unity of time. Specifically, The Winter’s Tale violated Aristotle’s unity of time which stated that the plot of a play must take place in a length of time comparable with the time it took to perform the play. Bruce Young, an English professor at Brigham Young University, explained this violation while speaking about Time's speech at the beginning of the fourth act, "Time also jokes in a sense (at least that's how I take it) about the supposed "unity" of time... Time here says basically that since he is Time, he doesn't have to follow rules (like the unity of time) that were established during the course of time--in other words, that are human creations and haven't been around forever." Shortly after Shakespeare’s time, in the beginning of the 18th Century with the Age of Enlightenment, Neoclassicism emerged (though the school of thought wasn’t actually named that until the mid-19th Century). They adopted Aristotle’s unity of time, and produced scathing reviews of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
One such review was in a biography of Shakespeare’s life written by Nicholas Rowe in 1709 titled Some Account of the Life of William Shakespeare where he states, “If one undertook to examine the greatest part of [Shakespeare’s work] by those Rules which are established by Aristotle, and taken from the model of the Grecian stage, it would be no very hard task to find a great many faults.” Rowe was one of the more forgiving Neoclassicists, continuing to say that while he was appalled by Shakespeare’s inattention to the Unities, he still enjoyed the work holistically on the merits of its entertainment value. A more vehement Neoclassicist, Charles Gildon, expressed his frustration at the violation of the Unities within The Winter’s Tale in an essay he published in 1710, “[The Winter’s Tale] needs no critic, its errors are visible enough, Shakespeare himself was sensible of this grossness of making the play above sixteen years, and therefore brings in Time as a chorus to the fourth act, to excuse the absurdity to which I refer you…” Here Gildon not only voices contempt for Shakespeare’s unorthodox use of time, he also proposes that Shakespeare was quite aware of his own unconventionality.
Gildon's thoughts in this regard are supported by the plethora of Greek allusions throughout the play. The characters repeatedly swear by the Roman God Jove (The Greek God Zues) such as Perdita does when speaking with Florizel, "Now Jove afford you a cause!" (4.4.19) and Paulina does when pleading with Leontes to accept Perdita as his child, "Look to your babe dear Lord, 'tis yours:/ Jove send her/a better guiding spirit!"(2.3.157-9). Shakespeare also involves an oracle when Leontes is attempting to discover whether his suspicions about his wife’s unfaithfulness are true and he sends Cleomenes and Dion to Apollo’s temple, “To Sacred Delphos, to Apollo’s temple/ Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know/ Of stuff’d sufficiency: Now from the Oracle/ They will bring all” (2.1. some line number or other). This is also reminiscent of ancient Greek theater where characters often went to oracles for advice or prophecies, such as Oedipus asking for Tiresius’ advice inOedipus Rex and Thetis going to the oracle about her son, Achilles, in The Illiad. In his essay "Look Down and See What Death is Doing: Gods and Greeks in The Winter's Tale," Earl Showerman spoke on the prevalence of Greek and ancient classical themes in The Winter's Tale, "The classical names of the characters, the preeminence of Apollo, the themes of vengeful jealousy with attempted regicide and infanticide, and the mysterious resurrection of Queen Hermione all point to sources from the earlier classical period." Clearly, Shakespeare was familiar with the conventions of Greek theater and with Aristotle's Unities surrounding them.
Time also begins his speech in the fourth act by saying, "I that please some, try all: Both joy and terror/ Of good and bad, that unfolds error"(4.1.1-2), in which he rhymes "terror" and "error," putting a natural emphasis on those words. This emphasis on "terror" and "error" is also indicative of Shakespeare's knowledge of the Unities in that he was aware his use of time would be perceived as an "error" and received by some with "terror." In the next two lines of Time's speech, Time rhymes "Time" with "crime," reiterating that the irregular use of time would be imputed by many as a crime. Shakespeare's choice to pass over sixteen years of plot was his conscious choice to "break the rules" established before him. This can be seen as Shakespeare using the irregular passage of time to liberate himself from the stipulations and guidelines that governed theater in his time. Simultaneously, however, this liberation was accompanied by censure and denouncement from dramatists and literary theorists. This is a constraint in that even though his play was written to be supported by the public, it was rejected by intellectuals and thus in many ways was still deemed a failure. Through his atypical utilization of time Shakespeare was simultaneously liberating himself from the accepted theatrical “rules” of the Unities, and constraining his work to the harsh reproach of scholars.
Breaking the theatrical “rule” of the Unity of time is also a liberation to the performers and technical workers putting on productions of The Winter’s Tale. Plays are split into acts and scenes not only to serve the playwright in organizing his/her thoughts, but also to aide performers, directors, dramaturges, and technicians in producing plays. Normally, before a production team even begins the staging process, they participate in “table work” where the team sits and simply talks about the script, splitting the scenes into even smaller sections called beats. These beats are used as an organizational method to enable different members of the production team to be able to work and communicate effectively with each other through the rehearsal and performance process.
The division in The Winter’s Tale caused by the lapse of sixteen years naturally separates the story into two distinct parts: Before the “time gap,” and after it, which provides logistical liberations to the production staff of a performance. Make-up artists, for example, can divide their work within the performance into “before the time gap” where Leontes, Paulina, and Hermoine are young, and “after the time gap” when they’re responsible for making Leontes, Paulina, and Hermoine look aged or tired. For directors, this gap allows room for creative interpretation. Brigham Young University performed a condensed, fifty minute rendition of The Winter’s Tale this past March that was made possible through utilizing this sixteen year gap. The first three acts were told as a prologue where the actors mimed out the plot with a narrator, and the rest of the play focused on the story of Perdita and Florizel. In speaking with the director, she explained her thoughts on time inThe Winter’s Tale, “The irregular passage of time within The Winter’s Tale was extremely liberating for me… I was able to use the rest of the play to focus on the love story between Perdita and Florizel, and the reunion of Perdita, Leontes, and Hermoine.” So, on a production level skipping sixteen years is a liberation both in providing logistical clarity to the production staff and creative liberties for the director.
The use of time within The Winter’s Tale, however, isn’t merely a liberation for the production staff, it's also a liberation to the audience watching the play because it contributes an element of unreality to the play. The Winter’s Tale is widely considered fantastical, and many consider it “ruled by the supernatural” with a “healthy dose of magic and wonder” (Haagensen), or would say that it has "elements of fantasy and romance" with "features of the play that strike us as unrealistic" (Young). This pervading sense of mysticism within the play is due in large part to the irregularity of time. While speaking with the cast of Brigham Young's performance of The Winter's Tale, the actress playing Paulina, Aubree Lyman, said, "The irregularity of time in The Winter's Tale makes the play feel more magical. It creates disillusionment." Time, in reality, is consistently, constantly moving forwards. It passes in seconds, days, and years with absolutely no deviation or altercation. When the Winter's Tale passes over sixteen years of plot, it shatters any imitation of the world in which time passes linearly and regularly. This lends the play a more dream-like quality, which is expressed when Time says, "I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing/ As you had slept between"(4.1.16-7), where Time literally relates the sixteen years passed to sleeping.
Time also has a supernatural aura at the beginning of the fourth act, enacting a God-like power in skipping sixteen years of plot. This God-like quality is represented with the line, "Now take upon me, in the name of Time" (4.1.3). This polysemy could merely be interpreted as a means for the chorus to identify itself to the audience, however it could also be interpreted in terms of its religious connotations. The phrase to "take upon" is a commonly used Christian phrase such as in Matthew 11:29, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me..." The phrase "in the name of" is also rife with religious context and is most commonly used within Christianity taking upon the name of Christ. When Time uses these phrases to self-identify to the audience, he is identifying himself as having some relation to religious figures, associating him with the powerful and supernatural. This presence of the supernatural also contributes a "magical" or "unreal" sense to the play in that direct contact and interaction with supernatural beings is uncharacteristic of reality.
How does the fairy-tale-like quality time creates produce a liberation? Fantasy presents an avenue of escapism for audience members. When audience members are engrossed in a world of oracles, the supernatural, and statues that spontaneously come to life, their actual lives feel distant and somewhat less relevant. So, mysticism affords a momentary liberation from the pressures and responsibilities of one's everyday life. What about after the audience members leave the theater, however? Does the liberation dissipate as one returns to the stresses of living? C.S. Lewis argued that it didn't, or at least that this liberation prevailed in a new form after leaving the theater. In his book, On Three Ways of Writing for Children, he argued that experiencing something bizarre and extraordinary pushes individuals to seek for "something beyond" the normal in their own lives. This inevitably contributes an element of the extraordinary to the ordinary, as he explains, "He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.” Contrastingly, Lewis proposes, it's the realistic stories that send audience members or readers back to their individual realities disgruntled and displeased. Here he uses "school story" to refer to the realistic story, "The school story is compensatory and we run to it from the disappointments and humiliations of the real world, only to be sent back to the real world undividedly discontented for it is all flattery to the ego. " (Lewis). In this regard, unreality (in this case caused by the irregularity of time) isn't merely a form of escapism but also a liberation to the way those exposed to it view their own realities. Through it's unusual and exceptional nature the incredible opens avenues of thought unavailable to those who refuse to depart from reality - avenues which can then be applied to the way one thinks on a consistent, daily basis. In short, exposure to the incredible allows one to see the "enchantment" in his/her own forest. Wade Hollinghaus, a theater professor at Brigham Young University, expressed this, "...the fantastical can be...beneficial because it provides us with an opportunity to play with the rules of what we consider to be reality. To do so could potentially allow us to think something other than what realism allows us to think."
While the irregularity of time contributes to audience members finding liberation of thought, however, it actually constricts the thought patterns of characters within the play. Seasons are a vital aspect of The Winter's Tale, unsurprisingly considering the play's title. The play begins in Sicilia in the grasp of winter, as indicated when Leontes' son says, "a sad tale's best for winter" (2.1.25) This is said as a precursor to Leontes accusing his wife on infidelity and the ultimate death of his wife and son. Mamillius is warning the audience with his statement, as if saying, "This play is set in winter. I hope you weren't expecting anything uplifting." It's also significant that Mamillius is merely a child saying this, implying that the negativity associated with winter isn't something learned, but rather something inherently understood, even by a child. A post about seasons within Shakespeare's works on the No Sweat Shakespeare blog supported this point, saying, "Shakespeare is never purely descriptive – his nature imagery is always metaphorical, presenting an emotion, a feeling, an idea or a situation...Winter is associated with something negative, such as discontent."
Specifically within The Winter's Tale, winter is directly correlated with the grief of Leontes. As long as he is caught in winter, he is constrained by negative feelings, initially of rage and jealousy and eventually of loss, pain, and regret. Paulina elucidates this association just before bringing Hermoine back to life, "A thousand knees, ten thousand years together, naked fasting/ upon a barren mountain and still winter in storm perpetual, could not move the gods/ to look that way thou wert"(3.2.230-3). Here, "knees" is used as a synecdoche for prayer, which alters the interpretation to: a thousand prayers and ten thousand years of praying could not wipe away your guilt. Reading this, or listening to it, creates a distinct mental image of a severe winter storm, the wind howling with feet of snow, Leontes standing naked in it, emaciated and haggard from fasting, his skin stretching in a thin, insufficient layer over his ribs, on an utterly desolate mountain side. Shakespeare's use of adjectives such as "naked," "barren," and "perpetual" contribute to this enargia, heightening the poignancy and dramatics of the description. Why create such a vivid chronographia of winter here? There are many explanations, but one is that it draws attention to the correlation between Leontes and winter. Specifically, it accentuates the constraints winter has imposed upon Leontes in trapping him in a state of mourning. This would also explain the use of "ten thousand years" and "storm perpetual" within the description. Both of these phrases are measurements of time, which again highlights the presence and influence of time within Leontes' mourning.
Spring and summer within The Winter's Tale, however, is associated with happiness. The No Sweat Shakespeare blog expressed this, "[Shakespeare's] summers and springs are joyous and life affirming." The fourth act after the time gap begins in summertime, where the audience is transported from bleak Sicilia and Leontes' mourning to joyous Bohemia and the Sheep Shearing Festival. Instantaneously it's clear to the audience that with the ushering in of summer there is a simultaneous ushering in of festivity and joy. Specifically, the summer is correlated with the character of Perdita. Her story within the text (with the exception of when she was a child and didn't yet have a character) takes place exclusively in the summer. When Polixenes first meets Perdita he addresses her, "a fair one are you - well you fit our ages/ with flowers of winter" (4.4.77-8). Later on in the scene Perdita responds to him,
"Sir, the year is growing ancient,
Not yet on summer's death nor on the birth of trembling winter,
the fairest flowers o' th' season
are our carnations and streaked gillyvors,
which some call nature's bastards" (4.4.80-5).
When Leontes describes Perdita as fair and then Perdita descibes the gillyvors as the "fairest flowers" it's indicative of the association between Perdita and the gillyvors, which are specifically July flowers(IN TEXT CITATION OF SOME VARIETY). Despite the fact that the gillyvors are the "fairest flowers o' th' season," however, they are still considered by some as nature's bastards. This is a parallelism to Leontes' incorrect belief that she was herself a bastard, which again reaffirms the interpretation of Perdita being a kind of flower belonging to summertime. Thus, Perdita is associated with summer and spends the play enfatuted with Florizel, while Leontes is associated with Winter time and spends the play experiencing jealousy, rage, and guilt. Each character, respectively, is confined to joy or sorrow dependent upon the season in which they appear on stage and the season they are associated with. Time, in the form of seasons, dictates and constrains the attitudes and thought patterns of the characters within the play.
Also prevalent within the summer portion of the play is the inclusion of music, which is another exemplification of the simultaneously restricting and constraining nature of time. (OK that was just about the worst transition of all time... best I could think of though, unfortunately) Music, by default and definition, relies heavily upon the use of time. Without time there can be no rhythm, there can be no time signature, and there can be no music. In many ways this is a constraint. Lyrics within music must adhere to narrow and specific formats to be able to work within the parameters of the rhythm of a song. Songs are often also split into distinct sections, such as the verse and bridge in modern music, which also constricts the construction of the music and lyrics. Much of Shakespeare's work is already constricted by the use of the highly confining form of iambic pentameter, which makes all of his work inherently song-like. An actress in Brigham Young's production of The Winter's Tale commented on this, "It's like singing a song almost when I'm speaking Shakespeare lines" (Lyman). The actual songs within The Winter's Tale have an even more restrictive form, however, the lyrics using rhyme, repetition and alliteration to be able to better coincide with and establish the rhythm of the music. An example of this can be found in the fourth act when Autolycus sings, "Pins, and poking-sticks of steel/ What maids lack from head to heel/ Come buy of me, come; come buy, come buy"(4.1.SOME LINE OR OTHER). In this, "come buy" is repeated multiple times in the last line, and in the first line the words "pins," "poking," "sticks," and "steel" are each emphasized through alliteration while "steel" receives a special attention because it rhymes with "heel." Here, the constraints accompanying form in the inclusion of songs is evident.
And yet, can this constraint to form simultaneously be liberating? On a performance level, memorizing a script that has a set pattern behind it takes much less effort than attempting to memorize something that doesn't follow a set form. Another actress from Brigham Young's The Winter's Tale explained this while talking about iambic pentameter, "It makes it easier to remember things if there's a beat behind it or a rhythm. With The Winter's Tale that was already built in with the iambic pentameter so it wasn't that hard to memorize the lines." This is why it's easier to listen to a song a few times and have the lyrics memorized than it is to read through The Declaration of Independence a few times and have it memorized. Form constraints can also be liberating from the perspective of the writer. Adam Hansen, author of Shakespeare and Popular Music explained this, "Having spoken to writers and musicians, for the Shakespeare book and since, I think they all see constraints as liberating. Constraints focus the artist’s (and the audience’s) attention...Without constraints, anything is possible, yes, but that sense of possibility can be debilitating rather than enabling. Constraint equals concentration." Poets often express this sentiment when writing sonnets or sestinas, discovering that having a limiting format forces them as writers to choose the most relevant words to include, improving the grounding of their writing. So, while time imposes inevitable restrictions on form within the music of The Winter's Tale, it also provides liberation, both for Shakespeare and his performers.
So what: the duality of time isn’t limited to merely affecting one aspect of the play, it had enormous effects on many aspects of the play, and even on the reception of the play on a performance level. An understanding of the role of time is vital to one’s perception of the text, regardless of what angle they may be approaching it from or what their interpretation may be.
Works Cited:
Brown, John Russell. William Shakespeare: Writing for Performance. Malaysia: St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and reference Division, 1996. Print.
Burton, Gideon. Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric. Brigham Young University, n.d. Web. 5 March 2013.
Dunlap, Amelia. Personal interview. 11 March 2013.
Gildon, Charles. "Remarks on the Plays of Shakespeare." Shakespearean Criticism. 7th ed. 1988. Print.
Haagensen, Erik. "The Winter's Tale: The Public Theater at the Delecorte Theater." Rev. The Winter's Tale, dir. Michael Grief. Back Stage - National Edition 8 July 2010: 40-1. Print.
Hansen, Adam. "Looking for Some Shakespeare Advice." Message to Mikaela Kemsley. 12 March 2013. E mail.
Hansen, Adam. Shakespeare and Popular Music. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010. Print.
Hollingshaus, Wade. "The Winter's Tale." Message to Mikaela Kemsley. 2 April 2013. E mail.
King. "Shakespeare and Winter Imagery." No Sweat Shakespeare. No Sweat Shakespeare. Blog post. 22 March 2013.
Lewis, C.S. "A Defence of the Fairy Tale." Inklings Forever, Volume 4. Ed. Constance Rice. Upland: Taylor University, 2004. Web.
Lyman, Aubree. Personal interview. 11 March 2013.
Rigney, Joe. "Three Objections to Fairy Tales and C.S. Lewis's Response." Church Leaders. Churchleaders.com. Blog post. 1 April 2013.
Rowe, Nicholas. "Some Account of the life of Mr. William Shakespeare." Shakespearean Criticism. 7th ed. 1988. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Winter's Tale. n.d. London: Routledge, 1988. Print.
Sutton, Richelle. Personal interview. 11 March 2013.
Trumbull, Eric W. "The Renaissance / Neoclassicism in Italy." Northern Virginia Community College Introduction to Theater. Northern Virginia Community College, 2007. Web. 7 March 2013.
Ullah, Ata. "Shakespeare's Treatment of Time in his Sonnets." Literary Articles. Blogger. Blog post. 12 March 2013.
Young, Bruce. "Teaching the Unrealistic Realism of The Winter's Tale." Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's The Tempest and Other Late Romances. Maurice Hunt. Modern Language Association of America, 1992. Web.
Young, Bruce. "The Winter's Tale." Message to Mikaela Kemsley. 2 April 2013. E mail.
Mikaela Kemsley
Dr. Gideon Burton
Shakespeare 382
3 April 2013
All in the Timing
Thesis: In his play, The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare utilizes the duality of time as being simultaneously constraining and liberating, both within the text and within his time.
When Time, the aptly named chorus, begins the fourth act by “sliding o’er” sixteen years of plot, it defines itself through use of binary oppositions, mirroring the similar opposition between the constraint and liberation of time. The chorus identifies itself, “I that please some, try all: both joy and terror/Of good and bad”(4:1:1-2). The pairs of pleasing and trying, joy and terror, and good and bad instantaneously set time apart as being paradoxical and self-contradictory, and they also coincide with the themes of constraint and liberation. Being pleased, good, and joy can readily be considered liberations from feelings of anger, pain, and negativity, while being tried, terror, and bad are constraints in one’s ability to experience positive emotions. In this sense, time literally is introducing itself at the beginning of the fourth act as being somewhat recondite and as being both liberating and constraining.
Time continues his speech at the beginning of the fourth act by skipping over sixteen years in the lives of the characters, bringing the plot to a point where Perdita has reached adulthood and Leontes has been pining over his deceased wife for sixteen years. This use of time is a liberation to the plot of the play, which consequently was a liberation to Shakespeare in producing a play that could be commercially successful in his time. Passing over sixteen years allows the story to depict the most engaging and salient points without the complicating use of flashback or excessive narration. In short, the time gap vastly improved the play’s entertainment value which was amenable to Shakespeare as a producer and a business man. Though this is oftentimes a less studied topic within the confines of an English classroom or within the presentations of a conference, Shakespeare was writing in an attempt not only to create art, but to sell tickets in his contracted theaters. In his book Writing for Performance, John Russell Brown cites this saying, “Whatever the subject of the dialogue, Shakespeare’s mind had access to the business of theater”(3). Russell goes on to point out that many of Shakespeare’s plays, if not all of them, have some reference to theatrical reception or even a direct appeal to the audience for a favorable reception, such as when Time asks for the audience’s indulgence in the fourth act, “Your patience allowing/ I turn my glass and give my scene such growing/ As you had slept between” (4.1.15-7). This effort to “crowd please” is also evidenced in The Winter’s Tale by the bear in act three scene three, which earned the play possibly the most famous stage exit ever written, “Exit, pursued by a bear”(3.3). While the bear isn’t wholly pertinent or necessary for the plot, it does incorporate an ostentatious element of spectacle that would’ve drawn in larger audiences for performances. Even a record of Shakespeare’s economic success with his performances would indicate his fruitful efforts in producing plays that were widely and appreciatively received by the public. Brown describes this, “The remarkable outline of Shakespeare’s career, as deduced from legal papers, account books, and other documentary evidence, argues for some quite exceptional drive behind his work in the theater…he was highly successful for more than twenty very productive years”(6). Clearly, Shakespeare intended his works to bring in an audience, perpetuate his reputation as a popular playwright, and keep the theaters that performed his work in business. Had Shakespeare not chosen to use an unnatural pattern of time, The Winter’s Play would’ve centered heavily on the uninteresting tale of Perdita being raised, or of Leontes lethargically mourning for sixteen years. Shakespeare’s goals of creating a commercially popular and successful work would’ve been, if not utterly insurmountable, at least arduous, and so the irregular use of time was a liberation to both the plot and Shakespeare’s business interests.
This isn’t to suggest, of course, that The Winter’s Tale was embraced by everyone in Shakespeare’s time or afterwards. While the play is able to present the most interesting aspects of the story and spectacle through its manipulation of time, this manipulation also flagrantly disregards Aristotle’s Unities, which constrained the play to the derision of scholars. After studying Ancient Greek and Roman theater, Aristotle established three vital rules that he felt a performance must adhere to in order to be successful: unity of place, unity of action, and unity of time. Specifically, The Winter’s Tale violated Aristotle’s unity of time which stated that the plot of a play must take place in a length of time comparable with the time it took to perform the play. Bruce Young, an English professor at Brigham Young University, explained this violation while speaking about Time's speech at the beginning of the fourth act, "Time also jokes in a sense (at least that's how I take it) about the supposed "unity" of time... Time here says basically that since he is Time, he doesn't have to follow rules (like the unity of time) that were established during the course of time--in other words, that are human creations and haven't been around forever." Shortly after Shakespeare’s time, in the beginning of the 18th Century with the Age of Enlightenment, Neoclassicism emerged (though the school of thought wasn’t actually named that until the mid-19th Century). They adopted Aristotle’s unity of time, and produced scathing reviews of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
One such review was in a biography of Shakespeare’s life written by Nicholas Rowe in 1709 titled Some Account of the Life of William Shakespeare where he states, “If one undertook to examine the greatest part of [Shakespeare’s work] by those Rules which are established by Aristotle, and taken from the model of the Grecian stage, it would be no very hard task to find a great many faults.” Rowe was one of the more forgiving Neoclassicists, continuing to say that while he was appalled by Shakespeare’s inattention to the Unities, he still enjoyed the work holistically on the merits of its entertainment value. A more vehement Neoclassicist, Charles Gildon, expressed his frustration at the violation of the Unities within The Winter’s Tale in an essay he published in 1710, “[The Winter’s Tale] needs no critic, its errors are visible enough, Shakespeare himself was sensible of this grossness of making the play above sixteen years, and therefore brings in Time as a chorus to the fourth act, to excuse the absurdity to which I refer you…” Here Gildon not only voices contempt for Shakespeare’s unorthodox use of time, he also proposes that Shakespeare was quite aware of his own unconventionality.
Gildon's thoughts in this regard are supported by the plethora of Greek allusions throughout the play. The characters repeatedly swear by the Roman God Jove (The Greek God Zues) such as Perdita does when speaking with Florizel, "Now Jove afford you a cause!" (4.4.19) and Paulina does when pleading with Leontes to accept Perdita as his child, "Look to your babe dear Lord, 'tis yours:/ Jove send her/a better guiding spirit!"(2.3.157-9). Shakespeare also involves an oracle when Leontes is attempting to discover whether his suspicions about his wife’s unfaithfulness are true and he sends Cleomenes and Dion to Apollo’s temple, “To Sacred Delphos, to Apollo’s temple/ Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know/ Of stuff’d sufficiency: Now from the Oracle/ They will bring all” (2.1. some line number or other). This is also reminiscent of ancient Greek theater where characters often went to oracles for advice or prophecies, such as Oedipus asking for Tiresius’ advice inOedipus Rex and Thetis going to the oracle about her son, Achilles, in The Illiad. In his essay "Look Down and See What Death is Doing: Gods and Greeks in The Winter's Tale," Earl Showerman spoke on the prevalence of Greek and ancient classical themes in The Winter's Tale, "The classical names of the characters, the preeminence of Apollo, the themes of vengeful jealousy with attempted regicide and infanticide, and the mysterious resurrection of Queen Hermione all point to sources from the earlier classical period." Clearly, Shakespeare was familiar with the conventions of Greek theater and with Aristotle's Unities surrounding them.
Time also begins his speech in the fourth act by saying, "I that please some, try all: Both joy and terror/ Of good and bad, that unfolds error"(4.1.1-2), in which he rhymes "terror" and "error," putting a natural emphasis on those words. This emphasis on "terror" and "error" is also indicative of Shakespeare's knowledge of the Unities in that he was aware his use of time would be perceived as an "error" and received by some with "terror." In the next two lines of Time's speech, Time rhymes "Time" with "crime," reiterating that the irregular use of time would be imputed by many as a crime. Shakespeare's choice to pass over sixteen years of plot was his conscious choice to "break the rules" established before him. This can be seen as Shakespeare using the irregular passage of time to liberate himself from the stipulations and guidelines that governed theater in his time. Simultaneously, however, this liberation was accompanied by censure and denouncement from dramatists and literary theorists. This is a constraint in that even though his play was written to be supported by the public, it was rejected by intellectuals and thus in many ways was still deemed a failure. Through his atypical utilization of time Shakespeare was simultaneously liberating himself from the accepted theatrical “rules” of the Unities, and constraining his work to the harsh reproach of scholars.
Breaking the theatrical “rule” of the Unity of time is also a liberation to the performers and technical workers putting on productions of The Winter’s Tale. Plays are split into acts and scenes not only to serve the playwright in organizing his/her thoughts, but also to aide performers, directors, dramaturges, and technicians in producing plays. Normally, before a production team even begins the staging process, they participate in “table work” where the team sits and simply talks about the script, splitting the scenes into even smaller sections called beats. These beats are used as an organizational method to enable different members of the production team to be able to work and communicate effectively with each other through the rehearsal and performance process.
The division in The Winter’s Tale caused by the lapse of sixteen years naturally separates the story into two distinct parts: Before the “time gap,” and after it, which provides logistical liberations to the production staff of a performance. Make-up artists, for example, can divide their work within the performance into “before the time gap” where Leontes, Paulina, and Hermoine are young, and “after the time gap” when they’re responsible for making Leontes, Paulina, and Hermoine look aged or tired. For directors, this gap allows room for creative interpretation. Brigham Young University performed a condensed, fifty minute rendition of The Winter’s Tale this past March that was made possible through utilizing this sixteen year gap. The first three acts were told as a prologue where the actors mimed out the plot with a narrator, and the rest of the play focused on the story of Perdita and Florizel. In speaking with the director, she explained her thoughts on time inThe Winter’s Tale, “The irregular passage of time within The Winter’s Tale was extremely liberating for me… I was able to use the rest of the play to focus on the love story between Perdita and Florizel, and the reunion of Perdita, Leontes, and Hermoine.” So, on a production level skipping sixteen years is a liberation both in providing logistical clarity to the production staff and creative liberties for the director.
The use of time within The Winter’s Tale, however, isn’t merely a liberation for the production staff, it's also a liberation to the audience watching the play because it contributes an element of unreality to the play. The Winter’s Tale is widely considered fantastical, and many consider it “ruled by the supernatural” with a “healthy dose of magic and wonder” (Haagensen), or would say that it has "elements of fantasy and romance" with "features of the play that strike us as unrealistic" (Young). This pervading sense of mysticism within the play is due in large part to the irregularity of time. While speaking with the cast of Brigham Young's performance of The Winter's Tale, the actress playing Paulina, Aubree Lyman, said, "The irregularity of time in The Winter's Tale makes the play feel more magical. It creates disillusionment." Time, in reality, is consistently, constantly moving forwards. It passes in seconds, days, and years with absolutely no deviation or altercation. When the Winter's Tale passes over sixteen years of plot, it shatters any imitation of the world in which time passes linearly and regularly. This lends the play a more dream-like quality, which is expressed when Time says, "I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing/ As you had slept between"(4.1.16-7), where Time literally relates the sixteen years passed to sleeping.
Time also has a supernatural aura at the beginning of the fourth act, enacting a God-like power in skipping sixteen years of plot. This God-like quality is represented with the line, "Now take upon me, in the name of Time" (4.1.3). This polysemy could merely be interpreted as a means for the chorus to identify itself to the audience, however it could also be interpreted in terms of its religious connotations. The phrase to "take upon" is a commonly used Christian phrase such as in Matthew 11:29, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me..." The phrase "in the name of" is also rife with religious context and is most commonly used within Christianity taking upon the name of Christ. When Time uses these phrases to self-identify to the audience, he is identifying himself as having some relation to religious figures, associating him with the powerful and supernatural. This presence of the supernatural also contributes a "magical" or "unreal" sense to the play in that direct contact and interaction with supernatural beings is uncharacteristic of reality.
How does the fairy-tale-like quality time creates produce a liberation? Fantasy presents an avenue of escapism for audience members. When audience members are engrossed in a world of oracles, the supernatural, and statues that spontaneously come to life, their actual lives feel distant and somewhat less relevant. So, mysticism affords a momentary liberation from the pressures and responsibilities of one's everyday life. What about after the audience members leave the theater, however? Does the liberation dissipate as one returns to the stresses of living? C.S. Lewis argued that it didn't, or at least that this liberation prevailed in a new form after leaving the theater. In his book, On Three Ways of Writing for Children, he argued that experiencing something bizarre and extraordinary pushes individuals to seek for "something beyond" the normal in their own lives. This inevitably contributes an element of the extraordinary to the ordinary, as he explains, "He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.” Contrastingly, Lewis proposes, it's the realistic stories that send audience members or readers back to their individual realities disgruntled and displeased. Here he uses "school story" to refer to the realistic story, "The school story is compensatory and we run to it from the disappointments and humiliations of the real world, only to be sent back to the real world undividedly discontented for it is all flattery to the ego. " (Lewis). In this regard, unreality (in this case caused by the irregularity of time) isn't merely a form of escapism but also a liberation to the way those exposed to it view their own realities. Through it's unusual and exceptional nature the incredible opens avenues of thought unavailable to those who refuse to depart from reality - avenues which can then be applied to the way one thinks on a consistent, daily basis. In short, exposure to the incredible allows one to see the "enchantment" in his/her own forest. Wade Hollinghaus, a theater professor at Brigham Young University, expressed this, "...the fantastical can be...beneficial because it provides us with an opportunity to play with the rules of what we consider to be reality. To do so could potentially allow us to think something other than what realism allows us to think."
While the irregularity of time contributes to audience members finding liberation of thought, however, it actually constricts the thought patterns of characters within the play. Seasons are a vital aspect of The Winter's Tale, unsurprisingly considering the play's title. The play begins in Sicilia in the grasp of winter, as indicated when Leontes' son says, "a sad tale's best for winter" (2.1.25) This is said as a precursor to Leontes accusing his wife on infidelity and the ultimate death of his wife and son. Mamillius is warning the audience with his statement, as if saying, "This play is set in winter. I hope you weren't expecting anything uplifting." It's also significant that Mamillius is merely a child saying this, implying that the negativity associated with winter isn't something learned, but rather something inherently understood, even by a child. A post about seasons within Shakespeare's works on the No Sweat Shakespeare blog supported this point, saying, "Shakespeare is never purely descriptive – his nature imagery is always metaphorical, presenting an emotion, a feeling, an idea or a situation...Winter is associated with something negative, such as discontent."
Specifically within The Winter's Tale, winter is directly correlated with the grief of Leontes. As long as he is caught in winter, he is constrained by negative feelings, initially of rage and jealousy and eventually of loss, pain, and regret. Paulina elucidates this association just before bringing Hermoine back to life, "A thousand knees, ten thousand years together, naked fasting/ upon a barren mountain and still winter in storm perpetual, could not move the gods/ to look that way thou wert"(3.2.230-3). Here, "knees" is used as a synecdoche for prayer, which alters the interpretation to: a thousand prayers and ten thousand years of praying could not wipe away your guilt. Reading this, or listening to it, creates a distinct mental image of a severe winter storm, the wind howling with feet of snow, Leontes standing naked in it, emaciated and haggard from fasting, his skin stretching in a thin, insufficient layer over his ribs, on an utterly desolate mountain side. Shakespeare's use of adjectives such as "naked," "barren," and "perpetual" contribute to this enargia, heightening the poignancy and dramatics of the description. Why create such a vivid chronographia of winter here? There are many explanations, but one is that it draws attention to the correlation between Leontes and winter. Specifically, it accentuates the constraints winter has imposed upon Leontes in trapping him in a state of mourning. This would also explain the use of "ten thousand years" and "storm perpetual" within the description. Both of these phrases are measurements of time, which again highlights the presence and influence of time within Leontes' mourning.
Spring and summer within The Winter's Tale, however, is associated with happiness. The No Sweat Shakespeare blog expressed this, "[Shakespeare's] summers and springs are joyous and life affirming." The fourth act after the time gap begins in summertime, where the audience is transported from bleak Sicilia and Leontes' mourning to joyous Bohemia and the Sheep Shearing Festival. Instantaneously it's clear to the audience that with the ushering in of summer there is a simultaneous ushering in of festivity and joy. Specifically, the summer is correlated with the character of Perdita. Her story within the text (with the exception of when she was a child and didn't yet have a character) takes place exclusively in the summer. When Polixenes first meets Perdita he addresses her, "a fair one are you - well you fit our ages/ with flowers of winter" (4.4.77-8). Later on in the scene Perdita responds to him,
"Sir, the year is growing ancient,
Not yet on summer's death nor on the birth of trembling winter,
the fairest flowers o' th' season
are our carnations and streaked gillyvors,
which some call nature's bastards" (4.4.80-5).
When Leontes describes Perdita as fair and then Perdita descibes the gillyvors as the "fairest flowers" it's indicative of the association between Perdita and the gillyvors, which are specifically July flowers(IN TEXT CITATION OF SOME VARIETY). Despite the fact that the gillyvors are the "fairest flowers o' th' season," however, they are still considered by some as nature's bastards. This is a parallelism to Leontes' incorrect belief that she was herself a bastard, which again reaffirms the interpretation of Perdita being a kind of flower belonging to summertime. Thus, Perdita is associated with summer and spends the play enfatuted with Florizel, while Leontes is associated with Winter time and spends the play experiencing jealousy, rage, and guilt. Each character, respectively, is confined to joy or sorrow dependent upon the season in which they appear on stage and the season they are associated with. Time, in the form of seasons, dictates and constrains the attitudes and thought patterns of the characters within the play.
Also prevalent within the summer portion of the play is the inclusion of music, which is another exemplification of the simultaneously restricting and constraining nature of time. (OK that was just about the worst transition of all time... best I could think of though, unfortunately) Music, by default and definition, relies heavily upon the use of time. Without time there can be no rhythm, there can be no time signature, and there can be no music. In many ways this is a constraint. Lyrics within music must adhere to narrow and specific formats to be able to work within the parameters of the rhythm of a song. Songs are often also split into distinct sections, such as the verse and bridge in modern music, which also constricts the construction of the music and lyrics. Much of Shakespeare's work is already constricted by the use of the highly confining form of iambic pentameter, which makes all of his work inherently song-like. An actress in Brigham Young's production of The Winter's Tale commented on this, "It's like singing a song almost when I'm speaking Shakespeare lines" (Lyman). The actual songs within The Winter's Tale have an even more restrictive form, however, the lyrics using rhyme, repetition and alliteration to be able to better coincide with and establish the rhythm of the music. An example of this can be found in the fourth act when Autolycus sings, "Pins, and poking-sticks of steel/ What maids lack from head to heel/ Come buy of me, come; come buy, come buy"(4.1.SOME LINE OR OTHER). In this, "come buy" is repeated multiple times in the last line, and in the first line the words "pins," "poking," "sticks," and "steel" are each emphasized through alliteration while "steel" receives a special attention because it rhymes with "heel." Here, the constraints accompanying form in the inclusion of songs is evident.
And yet, can this constraint to form simultaneously be liberating? On a performance level, memorizing a script that has a set pattern behind it takes much less effort than attempting to memorize something that doesn't follow a set form. Another actress from Brigham Young's The Winter's Tale explained this while talking about iambic pentameter, "It makes it easier to remember things if there's a beat behind it or a rhythm. With The Winter's Tale that was already built in with the iambic pentameter so it wasn't that hard to memorize the lines." This is why it's easier to listen to a song a few times and have the lyrics memorized than it is to read through The Declaration of Independence a few times and have it memorized. Form constraints can also be liberating from the perspective of the writer. Adam Hansen, author of Shakespeare and Popular Music explained this, "Having spoken to writers and musicians, for the Shakespeare book and since, I think they all see constraints as liberating. Constraints focus the artist’s (and the audience’s) attention...Without constraints, anything is possible, yes, but that sense of possibility can be debilitating rather than enabling. Constraint equals concentration." Poets often express this sentiment when writing sonnets or sestinas, discovering that having a limiting format forces them as writers to choose the most relevant words to include, improving the grounding of their writing. So, while time imposes inevitable restrictions on form within the music of The Winter's Tale, it also provides liberation, both for Shakespeare and his performers.
So what: the duality of time isn’t limited to merely affecting one aspect of the play, it had enormous effects on many aspects of the play, and even on the reception of the play on a performance level. An understanding of the role of time is vital to one’s perception of the text, regardless of what angle they may be approaching it from or what their interpretation may be.
Works Cited:
Brown, John Russell. William Shakespeare: Writing for Performance. Malaysia: St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and reference Division, 1996. Print.
Burton, Gideon. Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric. Brigham Young University, n.d. Web. 5 March 2013.
Dunlap, Amelia. Personal interview. 11 March 2013.
Gildon, Charles. "Remarks on the Plays of Shakespeare." Shakespearean Criticism. 7th ed. 1988. Print.
Haagensen, Erik. "The Winter's Tale: The Public Theater at the Delecorte Theater." Rev. The Winter's Tale, dir. Michael Grief. Back Stage - National Edition 8 July 2010: 40-1. Print.
Hansen, Adam. "Looking for Some Shakespeare Advice." Message to Mikaela Kemsley. 12 March 2013. E mail.
Hansen, Adam. Shakespeare and Popular Music. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010. Print.
Hollingshaus, Wade. "The Winter's Tale." Message to Mikaela Kemsley. 2 April 2013. E mail.
King. "Shakespeare and Winter Imagery." No Sweat Shakespeare. No Sweat Shakespeare. Blog post. 22 March 2013.
Lewis, C.S. "A Defence of the Fairy Tale." Inklings Forever, Volume 4. Ed. Constance Rice. Upland: Taylor University, 2004. Web.
Lyman, Aubree. Personal interview. 11 March 2013.
Rigney, Joe. "Three Objections to Fairy Tales and C.S. Lewis's Response." Church Leaders. Churchleaders.com. Blog post. 1 April 2013.
Rowe, Nicholas. "Some Account of the life of Mr. William Shakespeare." Shakespearean Criticism. 7th ed. 1988. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Winter's Tale. n.d. London: Routledge, 1988. Print.
Sutton, Richelle. Personal interview. 11 March 2013.
Trumbull, Eric W. "The Renaissance / Neoclassicism in Italy." Northern Virginia Community College Introduction to Theater. Northern Virginia Community College, 2007. Web. 7 March 2013.
Ullah, Ata. "Shakespeare's Treatment of Time in his Sonnets." Literary Articles. Blogger. Blog post. 12 March 2013.
Young, Bruce. "Teaching the Unrealistic Realism of The Winter's Tale." Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's The Tempest and Other Late Romances. Maurice Hunt. Modern Language Association of America, 1992. Web.
Young, Bruce. "The Winter's Tale." Message to Mikaela Kemsley. 2 April 2013. E mail.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
So maybe it helps to be an extrovert
Recent progress in terms of social proof:
I found an article online by BYU professor Bruce Young about teaching the unrealities within The Winter's Tale. I sent him an e-mail with some specific questions about my research paper, and this morning he sent me back a beautifully helpful e-mail. He answered my questions directly, and also kind of just went on a rant about time in The Winter's Tale. I think the rant was just because he felt like it, but almost all of it fit in with other already-written paragraphs within my paper, which is fantastic because now I can go through and add a quote or two from him to beef up my paper. He also sent me some links to resources he thought would be helpful which I'm planning to read through once I finish this post :)
I've been thinking recently about how time can be a liberation to audience members watching The Winter's Tale. The irregular use of time definitely adds an element of mysticism to the play, and I believe that that element of mysticism makes it easier as an audience member to be enveloped by the foreign world on the stage and forget about our individualized everyday realities. I sent an e-mail to my theater history professor asking some questions about theater and escapism and hopefully he'll get back to me soon!
Dan: Oh Dan. He works on the fifth floor in the library, and honestly he's been my sounding board through this entire process and he still is (if you're having issues organizing your thoughts I suggest going to see if you can find a guy wearing a nametag that says "dan" at the help desk on the fifth floor. He's the best). Recently though he's been working on some research papers too so its been fun to be able to return the favor and be a sounding board for him as well. In terms of helping people within class, I've mostly just been trying to read other's posts on the blog, and I have a tendency to stumble upon information pertinent to her when I'm doing my research, so when that happens I try to pass it along to her.
I found an article online by BYU professor Bruce Young about teaching the unrealities within The Winter's Tale. I sent him an e-mail with some specific questions about my research paper, and this morning he sent me back a beautifully helpful e-mail. He answered my questions directly, and also kind of just went on a rant about time in The Winter's Tale. I think the rant was just because he felt like it, but almost all of it fit in with other already-written paragraphs within my paper, which is fantastic because now I can go through and add a quote or two from him to beef up my paper. He also sent me some links to resources he thought would be helpful which I'm planning to read through once I finish this post :)
I've been thinking recently about how time can be a liberation to audience members watching The Winter's Tale. The irregular use of time definitely adds an element of mysticism to the play, and I believe that that element of mysticism makes it easier as an audience member to be enveloped by the foreign world on the stage and forget about our individualized everyday realities. I sent an e-mail to my theater history professor asking some questions about theater and escapism and hopefully he'll get back to me soon!
Dan: Oh Dan. He works on the fifth floor in the library, and honestly he's been my sounding board through this entire process and he still is (if you're having issues organizing your thoughts I suggest going to see if you can find a guy wearing a nametag that says "dan" at the help desk on the fifth floor. He's the best). Recently though he's been working on some research papers too so its been fun to be able to return the favor and be a sounding board for him as well. In terms of helping people within class, I've mostly just been trying to read other's posts on the blog, and I have a tendency to stumble upon information pertinent to her when I'm doing my research, so when that happens I try to pass it along to her.
Monday, April 1, 2013
RACHEL!
Dearest Rachel... You definitely need to read this is you haven't already
http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/wintale.htm
Sincerely,
Mikaela
http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/wintale.htm
Sincerely,
Mikaela
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Bibliography part two
And my research into time and The Winter's Tale continues...
1. As I was reading The Arden Shakespeare edition of The Winter's Tale I came across a footnote I want to use that takes information from Joshua Sylvester's Du Bartas. Unfortunately, I've yet to be able to find a full text of it so I can figure out how to cite it. [source referred to in a scholarly edition of the primary text]
2. Being in Time: Self Consciousness, Time and Narrative in Philosophy and Literature. This had some useful information on the affect time has on mourning which I'm going to use in relation to Leontes. [source found through an academic archive, an e book]
1. As I was reading The Arden Shakespeare edition of The Winter's Tale I came across a footnote I want to use that takes information from Joshua Sylvester's Du Bartas. Unfortunately, I've yet to be able to find a full text of it so I can figure out how to cite it. [source referred to in a scholarly edition of the primary text]
2. Being in Time: Self Consciousness, Time and Narrative in Philosophy and Literature. This had some useful information on the affect time has on mourning which I'm going to use in relation to Leontes. [source found through an academic archive, an e book]
3. Remembrance of Things Past by M. Proust. Dr. Burton actually mentioned this to me when I told him I was thinking about Leontes mourning and it has some interesting perspectives on grief/loss that I'm not sure whether or not I'll use yet [source recommended by a person, scholarly monograph, older source]
4. Broken Harmony: Shakespeare and the Politics of Music by Joseph M. Ortiz. I'm trying to interpret what it says about Shakespeare and music in terms of time (rhythm, dance, etc.) [monograph, recent source]
5. An excerpt from a biography of Shakespeare written in the 18th Century by Nicholas Rowe that talks about Shakespeare breaking the unity of time in The Winter's Tale. I found it in the library in one of the Shakespeare literary criticism volumes [source found browsing physical library shelves]
6. Also from the same literary criticism volume, I found an essay by Charles Gildon from the 18th Century criticizing Shakespeare breaking the unity of time [source found by browsing physical library shelves]
7. No Sweat Shakespeare Blog. The page I was looking at specifically was from a few weeks ago about Season imagery in The Winter's Tale and actually Rachel recommended it to me - I plan on writing some about how time constrains the characters via the seasons [source recommended by a person, source that came via a social network, an academic blog, very current]
8. I joined the Shakespeare fans group on goodreads
and have been reading through some of the comments on The Winter's Tale. I think later this week I might work up the guts to start posting in it and asking people some questions about my paper! [very current, academic blog, source that came via social network]
4. Broken Harmony: Shakespeare and the Politics of Music by Joseph M. Ortiz. I'm trying to interpret what it says about Shakespeare and music in terms of time (rhythm, dance, etc.) [monograph, recent source]
5. An excerpt from a biography of Shakespeare written in the 18th Century by Nicholas Rowe that talks about Shakespeare breaking the unity of time in The Winter's Tale. I found it in the library in one of the Shakespeare literary criticism volumes [source found browsing physical library shelves]
6. Also from the same literary criticism volume, I found an essay by Charles Gildon from the 18th Century criticizing Shakespeare breaking the unity of time [source found by browsing physical library shelves]
7. No Sweat Shakespeare Blog. The page I was looking at specifically was from a few weeks ago about Season imagery in The Winter's Tale and actually Rachel recommended it to me - I plan on writing some about how time constrains the characters via the seasons [source recommended by a person, source that came via a social network, an academic blog, very current]
8. I joined the Shakespeare fans group on goodreads
and have been reading through some of the comments on The Winter's Tale. I think later this week I might work up the guts to start posting in it and asking people some questions about my paper! [very current, academic blog, source that came via social network]Here comes J - er, Mikaela!
First off, I hope you all enjoyed my reference from The Shining. Second - some of you may have noticed that I didn't really post last week. The long and short of it is that I was fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster named illness and rehearsal and have only recently been vomited back up into the world of school work. Bear with me as compensate for last week and post incessantly this week.
Those who've been reading my posts know that I'm writing about the constraints/liberations of time and so in analyzing The Winters Tale I decided to look specifically at passages about the seasons. Some things I noticed:
Winter is heavily associated with Leontes and his suffering. Just before Leontes accuses his wife of having an affair, his son gives the audience a precursor to the story saying, "a sad tale's best for winter" (2.1.25). Paulina also tells Leontes, "A thousand knees, ten thousand years together, naked fasting/ upon a barren mountain and still winter in storm perpetual, could not move the gods/ to look that way thou wert"(3.2.230-3). I took "knees" as a synecdoche for prayer, and then read the quote again replacing "winter" with "Leontes' suffering," which made sense and reaffirmed my thoughts on winter's association with suffering.
Summer, contrastingly, is more associated with Perdita and with happiness. When Polixenes first meets Perdita he addresses her, "a fair one are you - well you fit our ages/ with flowers of winter" (4.4.77-8). Later on in the scene Perdita says,
"Sir, the year is growing ancient,
Not yet on summer's death nor on the birth of trembling winter,
the fairest flowers o' th' season
are our carnations and streaked gillyvors,
which some call nature's bastards" (4.4.80-5). A gillyvor, according to a footnote in the copy of the book I was using, is a July-flower. Reading these quotes I saw Perdita as these summer flowers - hence her being a flower of winter (born during Leontes' grief) and hence the flowers being bastards (just like Leontes wrongly supposed her to be a bastard). This would also explain the parallelism between Polixenes defining Perdita as "fair" and then Perdita describing the flowers as "fair."
Leontes is characterized by winter and spends the majority of the play in anguish, and Perdita is correlated with summer an spends the play infatuated with Floriziel. Seasons are a manifestation of time, and in this sense time is a constraint, because each of the characters is constrained to joy/sorrow dependent on season.
...ok so obviously that needs some more development, but it's a start for one of the ideas in my paper!
Those who've been reading my posts know that I'm writing about the constraints/liberations of time and so in analyzing The Winters Tale I decided to look specifically at passages about the seasons. Some things I noticed:
Winter is heavily associated with Leontes and his suffering. Just before Leontes accuses his wife of having an affair, his son gives the audience a precursor to the story saying, "a sad tale's best for winter" (2.1.25). Paulina also tells Leontes, "A thousand knees, ten thousand years together, naked fasting/ upon a barren mountain and still winter in storm perpetual, could not move the gods/ to look that way thou wert"(3.2.230-3). I took "knees" as a synecdoche for prayer, and then read the quote again replacing "winter" with "Leontes' suffering," which made sense and reaffirmed my thoughts on winter's association with suffering.
Summer, contrastingly, is more associated with Perdita and with happiness. When Polixenes first meets Perdita he addresses her, "a fair one are you - well you fit our ages/ with flowers of winter" (4.4.77-8). Later on in the scene Perdita says,
"Sir, the year is growing ancient,
Not yet on summer's death nor on the birth of trembling winter,
the fairest flowers o' th' season
are our carnations and streaked gillyvors,
which some call nature's bastards" (4.4.80-5). A gillyvor, according to a footnote in the copy of the book I was using, is a July-flower. Reading these quotes I saw Perdita as these summer flowers - hence her being a flower of winter (born during Leontes' grief) and hence the flowers being bastards (just like Leontes wrongly supposed her to be a bastard). This would also explain the parallelism between Polixenes defining Perdita as "fair" and then Perdita describing the flowers as "fair."
Leontes is characterized by winter and spends the majority of the play in anguish, and Perdita is correlated with summer an spends the play infatuated with Floriziel. Seasons are a manifestation of time, and in this sense time is a constraint, because each of the characters is constrained to joy/sorrow dependent on season.
...ok so obviously that needs some more development, but it's a start for one of the ideas in my paper!
Friday, March 22, 2013
Roughing it
Hey everyone, so I haven't written an introduction yet, so I just gave you my thesis and then dived into the meat of the essay. It's definitely not polished and still needs support in a lot of places but any commentary/constructive criticism will be appreciated!
In his play, The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare utilizes the duality of time as being simultaneously constraining and liberating.
In his play, The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare utilizes the duality of time as being simultaneously constraining and liberating.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
READ ME! I'LL HELP!
After doing some research on publication venues here's what I found:
The European Shakespeare Research Association is holding a conference this upcoming June on Shakespeare and myth. It costs money to go to it, though it's free to become a member of the Association and I think you only need to be a member to submit something (though I'll have to look a little closer into that).
University of Akron is having a conference in October that's basically for anything Shakespeare related and the submissions are due by the end of August.
The Shakespeare festival here in Cedar City is looking for paper submissions - the conference is at the end of August and the submission is due by May 1, and it's anything Shakespeare related though they're particularly interested in papers relating to Love's Labour's Lost, King John, and The Tempest.
This is a conference I found taking place in early May about music within Shakespeare work, which is perfect because that's a huge staple to my paper. I don't think it's still accepting submissions, but I just thought it was cool that there are other people out there interested in what I am and I'll be following this conference to see if anything gets posted online in May.
Anyways, I hope this is helpful for some of you - especially since I know there's a couple people looking at Love's Labour's Lost and The Tempest right now.
The European Shakespeare Research Association is holding a conference this upcoming June on Shakespeare and myth. It costs money to go to it, though it's free to become a member of the Association and I think you only need to be a member to submit something (though I'll have to look a little closer into that).
University of Akron is having a conference in October that's basically for anything Shakespeare related and the submissions are due by the end of August.
The Shakespeare festival here in Cedar City is looking for paper submissions - the conference is at the end of August and the submission is due by May 1, and it's anything Shakespeare related though they're particularly interested in papers relating to Love's Labour's Lost, King John, and The Tempest.
This is a conference I found taking place in early May about music within Shakespeare work, which is perfect because that's a huge staple to my paper. I don't think it's still accepting submissions, but I just thought it was cool that there are other people out there interested in what I am and I'll be following this conference to see if anything gets posted online in May.
Anyways, I hope this is helpful for some of you - especially since I know there's a couple people looking at Love's Labour's Lost and The Tempest right now.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
For Rachel: who is having to do way too much research on her own ;)
Dearest Rachel...
I love your thesis. Love it. I'm not sure if you already know this, but you're actually echoing an extremely prevalent idea through theater theory which is that the unreal is real or that the real can only be divulged through examining the unreal. So some suggestions...
1. Try looking at your thesis through the lens of theater history/ look at different performance histories of The Winter's Tale.
2. When I was talking with some of the cast members of BYU's production of The Winter's Tale they talked about the element of magic in it. I can probably give you some contact information so that you can e-mail one of the cast members if you want.
3. http://metalib.lib.byu.edu/V/PR25DA99MGXLGGAE74A2Q8A9GY22L379VL9TRVDGLQVEGQK72B-65344?func=meta-3&short-format=002&set_number=002313&set_entry=000005&format=999 this is an article I found online and it's actually about a man who was the lighting director for a production of As You Like It and The Tempest. It's pretty short, but relevant to your topic - he talks about how it's difficult to work the logistics of creating the "magic" of Shakespeare's plays. For anyone involved in putting on a production, magic is a very real. If you want to present magic on the stage you have to have a firm connection with reality - how are the lights going to work? what about the stage crew? costum changes?
I know that this wasn't an angle you were taking, but I think it's one worth considering :) Good luck!
Yours truly,
Mikaela
I love your thesis. Love it. I'm not sure if you already know this, but you're actually echoing an extremely prevalent idea through theater theory which is that the unreal is real or that the real can only be divulged through examining the unreal. So some suggestions...
1. Try looking at your thesis through the lens of theater history/ look at different performance histories of The Winter's Tale.
2. When I was talking with some of the cast members of BYU's production of The Winter's Tale they talked about the element of magic in it. I can probably give you some contact information so that you can e-mail one of the cast members if you want.
3. http://metalib.lib.byu.edu/V/PR25DA99MGXLGGAE74A2Q8A9GY22L379VL9TRVDGLQVEGQK72B-65344?func=meta-3&short-format=002&set_number=002313&set_entry=000005&format=999 this is an article I found online and it's actually about a man who was the lighting director for a production of As You Like It and The Tempest. It's pretty short, but relevant to your topic - he talks about how it's difficult to work the logistics of creating the "magic" of Shakespeare's plays. For anyone involved in putting on a production, magic is a very real. If you want to present magic on the stage you have to have a firm connection with reality - how are the lights going to work? what about the stage crew? costum changes?
I know that this wasn't an angle you were taking, but I think it's one worth considering :) Good luck!
Yours truly,
Mikaela
Friday, March 15, 2013
honestly relieved I don't have to do full citations
Working thesis: In his play, The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare utilizes the duality of time as being simultaneously constraining and liberating.
Monday, March 11, 2013
frustration and success
Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what my thesis statement is going to be. Here's a couple of ideas though:
1.my thesis that originally inspired all of this was: Time is a persona that dictates the lives of the characters within The Winters Tale.
Now, I could still write about that, but I'm not liking the "time as a persona" idea as much anymore. With all the research I've found, it just feels like too much of a stretch. So...
2. Time dictates the lives of the characters in The Winter's Tale. Easier to support, definitely plausible, but boring. I'm voting nay.
3. In his play, The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare emphasizes the duality of time as being simultaneously constraining and liberating. Honestly, I like this one and feel like I could legitimately write about it. Does it sound too wishy-washy though, like I just couldn't figure out whether time was constraining or liberating?
Anyways... FAILURE: I attempted in vain to find literary criticism about Shakespeare and time, only to have my hatred of online research re-kindled.
SUCCESS: I was able to find two blogs that concerned my topics! One was about the connections between Shakespeare and popular music (if you haven't read any of my posts, I want to write about the correlation between music and time within The Winter's Tale) and actually the post I read on this blog talked about a book written by a Shakespeare professor. I was able to find the e-mail for this professor that was writing about Shakespeare and time and e-mailed him some questions - fingers crossed he'll respond!
The second blog was about Shakespeare's sonnets and had a lot on time - I'm working on jumping in on that conversation :)
1.my thesis that originally inspired all of this was: Time is a persona that dictates the lives of the characters within The Winters Tale.
Now, I could still write about that, but I'm not liking the "time as a persona" idea as much anymore. With all the research I've found, it just feels like too much of a stretch. So...
2. Time dictates the lives of the characters in The Winter's Tale. Easier to support, definitely plausible, but boring. I'm voting nay.
3. In his play, The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare emphasizes the duality of time as being simultaneously constraining and liberating. Honestly, I like this one and feel like I could legitimately write about it. Does it sound too wishy-washy though, like I just couldn't figure out whether time was constraining or liberating?
Anyways... FAILURE: I attempted in vain to find literary criticism about Shakespeare and time, only to have my hatred of online research re-kindled.
SUCCESS: I was able to find two blogs that concerned my topics! One was about the connections between Shakespeare and popular music (if you haven't read any of my posts, I want to write about the correlation between music and time within The Winter's Tale) and actually the post I read on this blog talked about a book written by a Shakespeare professor. I was able to find the e-mail for this professor that was writing about Shakespeare and time and e-mailed him some questions - fingers crossed he'll respond!
The second blog was about Shakespeare's sonnets and had a lot on time - I'm working on jumping in on that conversation :)
Sunday, March 10, 2013
so maybe I won't throw my computer off the roof
I also did some research online, specifically I spent some time looking through the forest of rhetoric website and looking at other online Shakespeare blogs. While the blogs have yet to prove beneficial, I did find some information on the rhetoric website that's promising. I've decided to stick with a thesis based around time (a more specific, articulated thesis is yet to come) and so I looked through the website specifically for rhetorical terms and devices concerning rhythm and time. I found some, and if I could find any of the rhetorical devices I was reading about applied within The Winter's Tale it would definitely give me a surer foundation for my time analysis. Question though: I don't think I have the time to sit down and reread the entire play looking for these devices. Any advice on a more efficient way of finding rhetorical devices in my play? Maybe I should focus in on a few critical scenes?
Saturday, March 9, 2013
When in doubt, go to the groupies
I've been having some difficulty with my research paper simply because for the past couple weeks I haven't had a computer (hopefully I will by the end of next week). With this said, my research recently has taken the form primarily of looking back to the primary texts and gathering "social proof." I've decided that my research paper is going to be centered around The Winters Tale which BYU is soon to put on a production of (A Winter's Fairy Tale). So, in an attempt to find enthusiasts on my topic, I went and spoke with members of the cast about the play. Wow. I mean wow. I've talked to roommates and friends about my ideas, but frankly they didn't always care or have any input for me. Talking with enthusiasts was extremely beneficial for me in that 1. they seemed excited about what I was doing, which made me excited and 2. they were able to give me some new insights.
When I told some cast members about how Time was a form of power, one of the actors pointed out that the irregular passage of time went against the rules for popular theater in England at the time. It made me think... was the peculiar use of time in A Winter's Tale a means for Shakespeare to display his power over Elizabethan theater? I had only thought of Time being a power controlling the characters in the play, but this broadened my perspective to see Shakespeare's use of time as a power play within historical context, fighting against Neoclassicism.
I also told them some of my thoughts on music, and they informed me that they would be incorporating a dance number in their production. They told me about how rhythm was the driving force within their choreography which brought up another idea for me - if Time is power, and music and dance is dictated by rhythm/timing, then isn't music in the Winter's Tale one more demonstration of the power of time?
Anyways, it was definitely a good idea to talk to the cast. I'm going to see if I can talk to the dramaturg and director as well and I'll definitely go to see the performance!
When I told some cast members about how Time was a form of power, one of the actors pointed out that the irregular passage of time went against the rules for popular theater in England at the time. It made me think... was the peculiar use of time in A Winter's Tale a means for Shakespeare to display his power over Elizabethan theater? I had only thought of Time being a power controlling the characters in the play, but this broadened my perspective to see Shakespeare's use of time as a power play within historical context, fighting against Neoclassicism.
I also told them some of my thoughts on music, and they informed me that they would be incorporating a dance number in their production. They told me about how rhythm was the driving force within their choreography which brought up another idea for me - if Time is power, and music and dance is dictated by rhythm/timing, then isn't music in the Winter's Tale one more demonstration of the power of time?
Anyways, it was definitely a good idea to talk to the cast. I'm going to see if I can talk to the dramaturg and director as well and I'll definitely go to see the performance!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
You'll be humming it in the shower
I got a lot of feedback on my idea about Shakespeare as a musical so I decided to look a little further into that. When I told a friend about my idea he asked, "Well what play?" which I hadn't considered. Looking through everything I've read this semester, every play incorporates music in some way, but a Winter's Tale does so most prominently. In fact, most of the songs also connect with the theme of time in that they depict the seasons. Autolycus sings a song about daffodils and summertime at the beginning of the fourth act, and then at the end of the act begins a song with, "lawn as white as driven snow..."(4.4.220). I'm still not completely sure what I want to write on, but I found that correlation interesting. My roommate also suggested that I look at international productions of a Winter's Tale to see the different uses of music (Bollywood??)
Another thought: music is dictated by timing, as is iambic pentameter. So in that sense, music could be seen as another display of time's power.
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