Shakespeare's Rhetoric of Comic CharacterFirst published in 1985. In this revisionist history of comic characterization, Karen Newman argues that, contrary to received opinion, Shakespeare was not the first comic dramatist to create self-conscious characters who seem 'lifelike' or 'realistic'. His comic practice is firmly set within a comic tradition which stretches from Plautus and Menander to playwrights of the Italian Renaissance. |
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Page 2
... lifelike. The persistence of such judgments, from the seventeenth century to the present day, suggests that we cannot simply dismiss them as culturally determined by a particular period or even ideology which values the 'realistic'. Our ...
... lifelike. The persistence of such judgments, from the seventeenth century to the present day, suggests that we cannot simply dismiss them as culturally determined by a particular period or even ideology which values the 'realistic'. Our ...
Page 3
... lifelike. Though many features of language contribute to characterization5 — dialect or jargon, meter, the use of a repeated figure or image, allusion, the places or topoi of decorum6 ~ perhaps the most common strategy Shakespeare uses ...
... lifelike. Though many features of language contribute to characterization5 — dialect or jargon, meter, the use of a repeated figure or image, allusion, the places or topoi of decorum6 ~ perhaps the most common strategy Shakespeare uses ...
Page 4
... lifelike far more effectively than simple description of a psychic event. To communicate the sense of a character's inner life requires a different mode of presentation. Paradoxically these dramatic speeches, though outside the dialogue ...
... lifelike far more effectively than simple description of a psychic event. To communicate the sense of a character's inner life requires a different mode of presentation. Paradoxically these dramatic speeches, though outside the dialogue ...
Page 5
... lifelike characters we must examine these materials within the coherent structure and shape of a given plot. The rhetorical features of soliloquy and its place in conventional comic plots have a long history, and part of my purpose in ...
... lifelike characters we must examine these materials within the coherent structure and shape of a given plot. The rhetorical features of soliloquy and its place in conventional comic plots have a long history, and part of my purpose in ...
Page 6
... lifelike and natural; critics and readers have too often accepted that illusion as real because Shakespeare was a master of illusion. 1 The inward springs: Measure for Measure II, ii, 162—87 6 Shakespeare's Rhetoric of Comic Character.
... lifelike and natural; critics and readers have too often accepted that illusion as real because Shakespeare was a master of illusion. 1 The inward springs: Measure for Measure II, ii, 162—87 6 Shakespeare's Rhetoric of Comic Character.
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
2 Comic plot conventions in Measure for Measure | 20 |
3 Menander and New Comedy | 30 |
4 Plautus and Terence | 42 |
5 The enchantments of Circe | 57 |
Shakespeares early comedies | 77 |
As You Like It and Twelfth Night | 94 |
8 Mistaking in Much Ado | 109 |
9 Shakespeares rhetoric of consciousness | 121 |
Notes | 129 |
Index of plays discussed | 149 |
General index | 151 |
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Common terms and phrases
action Angelo Angelo’s soliloquy Antipholus of Syracuse Arden edition argues audience Beatrice behavior Benedick Berowne Cesario characterization Charisios Claudio Comedy of Errors comic characters comic plots comic soliloquy complex conventions courtly creating critics discovery disguise dramatic dramatists Drusilla Duke Duke’s E. M. W. Tillyard Elizabethan emphasize essay Evanthius example features of dialogue fiction Flamminio Gl’Ingannati Hamlet Hero Hero’s imagined inner debate intrigue Isabella Italian comedy Knemon language Lelia lifelike lines linguistic London Love’s lovers Lucrezio M. C. Bradbrook Malvolio marriage Measure for Measure Menander Menander’s metaphor Midsummer Night’s Dream mind mistaken identity mistaken identity plot monologue Olivia person Plautine Plautus play play’s problem comedies pronouns prosopopoeia Pseudolus psychological recognized Renaissance comedy represent rhetoric of consciousness rhetorical questions role romance Rosalind Salingar scene self—address sense Shakespeare Shakespeare Survey Shakespeare’s characters soliloquy Sosia suggests Terence Terence’s theme thou tradition tragedy trans Twelfth Night Viola words