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 3
... merely in stylistic but also in social terms . His presence , even attenuated through writing , is thought to disgrace the young man of birth . The very ' public space ' in which ' writers publi- cized hitherto private bodies and ...
... merely in stylistic but also in social terms . His presence , even attenuated through writing , is thought to disgrace the young man of birth . The very ' public space ' in which ' writers publi- cized hitherto private bodies and ...
Page 4
... merely denotative . This will mean reopening the question of the ' dramatic ' nature of the sonnets : taking seriously the fact that the 1609 Quarto is the only major body of sonnets in early Modern England writ- ten by a dramatist ...
... merely denotative . This will mean reopening the question of the ' dramatic ' nature of the sonnets : taking seriously the fact that the 1609 Quarto is the only major body of sonnets in early Modern England writ- ten by a dramatist ...
Page 5
... merely a grammatical effect of language . It is a relationship embodied in particular lived cir- cumstances , which Shakespeare's dramatic works frequently re - present in that fullness on the public stage . However Shakespeare's plays ...
... merely a grammatical effect of language . It is a relationship embodied in particular lived cir- cumstances , which Shakespeare's dramatic works frequently re - present in that fullness on the public stage . However Shakespeare's plays ...
Page 11
... merely stating something is actually performing something ( and is thus a ' performative ' ) , draws a crucial and productive distinction between different kinds of performative , namely , between ' perlocutionary ' and ' illocutionary ...
... merely stating something is actually performing something ( and is thus a ' performative ' ) , draws a crucial and productive distinction between different kinds of performative , namely , between ' perlocutionary ' and ' illocutionary ...
Page 12
... merely contingent force of a perlocutionary or rhetorical utter- ance , may transform the relationship between addresser and addressee . In Shakespeare's sonnets , language is mobilised not merely to say that things are so , or to move ...
... merely contingent force of a perlocutionary or rhetorical utter- ance , may transform the relationship between addresser and addressee . In Shakespeare's sonnets , language is mobilised not merely to say that things are so , or to move ...
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