Speech and Performance in Shakespeare's Sonnets and PlaysDavid Schalkwyk offers a sustained reading of Shakespeare's sonnets in relation to his plays. He argues that the language of the sonnets is primarily performative rather than descriptive, and bases this distinction on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin. In a wide-ranging analysis of both the 1609 Quarto of Shakespeare's sonnets and the Petrarchan discourses in a selection of plays, Schalkwyk addresses such issues as embodiment and silencing, interiority and theatricality, inequalities of power, status, gender and desire, both in the published poems and on the stage and in the context of the early modern period. In a provocative discussion of the question of proper names and naming events in the sonnets and plays, the book seeks to reopen the question of the autobiographical nature of Shakespeare's sonnets. |
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Page 1
... Shakespeare's plays ? Are the sonnets primarily concerned with description , or is their lan- guage chiefly performative ? And how are these questions about language , proper names and genre conceptually related to the life of the ...
... Shakespeare's plays ? Are the sonnets primarily concerned with description , or is their lan- guage chiefly performative ? And how are these questions about language , proper names and genre conceptually related to the life of the ...
Page 3
... Shakespeare became increasingly well known through his appearance in the new , professionalised theatre , saw a dramatic increase in the connections between author and text.5 Shakespeare's sonnets dis- play a consistent awareness of the ...
... Shakespeare became increasingly well known through his appearance in the new , professionalised theatre , saw a dramatic increase in the connections between author and text.5 Shakespeare's sonnets dis- play a consistent awareness of the ...
Page 4
... Shakespeare's sonnets in particular , is to praise their subjects through description . I shall focus on the performative , rather than the descriptive , nature of their language ; that is to say , on the ... Shakespeare's sonnets and plays.
... Shakespeare's sonnets in particular , is to praise their subjects through description . I shall focus on the performative , rather than the descriptive , nature of their language ; that is to say , on the ... Shakespeare's sonnets and plays.
Page 5
... Shakespeare's sonnets ( by comparison with Sidney , Spenser , Daniel and ... plays.12 The sonnets ' performative language encompasses much more than the ... Shakespeare's dramatic works frequently re - present in that fullness on the ...
... Shakespeare's sonnets ( by comparison with Sidney , Spenser , Daniel and ... plays.12 The sonnets ' performative language encompasses much more than the ... Shakespeare's dramatic works frequently re - present in that fullness on the ...
Page 6
... Shakespeare's role as a man of the theatre thus conditions his sonnets in ... plays represent to the highest degree the ' interactive dialogue ' by which ... plays enables us to see how the sonnets enact , at the moment of its operation ...
... Shakespeare's role as a man of the theatre thus conditions his sonnets in ... plays represent to the highest degree the ' interactive dialogue ' by which ... plays enables us to see how the sonnets enact , at the moment of its operation ...
Contents
1 | |
the sonnets Antony and Cleopatra and As You Like It | 29 |
the sonnets Loves Labours Lost Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night | 59 |
the sonnets Hamlet and King Lear | 102 |
the sonnets Romeo and Juliet Troilus and Cressida and Othello | 150 |
the sonnets and Alls Well that Ends Well | 198 |
Conclusion | 238 |
Bibliography | 243 |
Index | 253 |
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Common terms and phrases
All's anti-theatrical Antony and Cleopatra argues argument audience beauty beloved beloved's Bertram Cambridge character claims concepts context criticism dark lady dark woman declaration Desdemona desire discourse doth early modern embodied enacts erotic Essays eyes fact fair fictional Fineman force Hamlet heart Helen historical Iago ideological illocutionary illocutionary acts interaction interiority inwardness King language games literary logical London loue Love's Labour's Lost lover lyric meaning merely metaphysical mutual Olivia Orsino Othello paradigm paradox performative perlocutionary Petrarchan play player player-poet poem poet poetic poetry political proper name Quarto reciprocity recognise relations relationship render representation rhetorical rigid designation Romeo and Juliet scene self-authorising sense sexual Shakespeare's sonnets silence sonnet 23 sonnet 44 speak speech acts stage theatre theatrical thee thing thou transform Troilus and Cressida truth Twelfth Night University Press Vendler Viola voice vows Wittgenstein women words young