Literature, Music, Drama and Performance
Literature, Music, Drama and Performance
Contributor(s): Grażyna Bystydzieńska (Editor), Magdalena Pypeć (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: british literature; british culture; 18th-century; 19th-century; theatre; music
Summary/Abstract: The essays in this volume explore various aspects of creative interconnections between literature, music, theatre and performance in 18th and 19th-century Britain. The authors adopt diverse critical standpoints and methodologies, demonstrating numerous interpretative possibilities of the themes.
Series: Texts and Contexts. Studies in 18th and 19th century British Literature and Culture
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-4088-5
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-4080-9
- Page Count: 160
- Publication Year: 2019
- Language: English
Music and the Georgian Novel, or the Divorce of Adam and Eve
Music and the Georgian Novel, or the Divorce of Adam and Eve
(Music and the Georgian Novel, or the Divorce of Adam and Eve)
- Author(s):Pierre Dubois
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:11-27
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:imitation; expression; sensibility; language; Georgian novel; music
- Summary/Abstract:Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne can be said to have inaugurated a new era in the way music was referred to and used in the 18th-century English novel. The growing importance of musical allusions in late Georgian novels paralleled the rise of the so-called “age of sensibility.” The demise of the classical theory of the “sister arts” in the course of the 18th century enabled music to become an autonomous artistic practice. It prompted the divorce between poetry and music and consequently encouraged the development of instrumental music. This had a direct bearing upon the new role accruing to music in the novel. It can be suggested that there is not only a difference, but a fundamental generic incompatibility or tension between music and the literary text as they try to share a common territory. Late Georgian writers felt that the “new sensibility” they strove to express in their texts could aptly be explored through references to music or musical practice. However, the very fact of mentioning music or of using musical devices in a prose text inevitably calls in question the nature of the literary medium itself. The role attributed to music inside the literary text drives the latter away from its usual shores, towards dangerous zones that threaten its normal balance. Even as music freed itself from the shackles of imitation and became more and more autonomous from the constraint of having as it were to “clothe” poetry, it acquired a greater role in the novel and, doing so, it highlighted the expressive shortcomings of language. By inviting music as a key component in their texts, novelists both paradoxically enriched them and endangered, or showed the limitations of their own art.
- Price: 4.50 €
Handel’s Samson and the Art of Adaptation
Handel’s Samson and the Art of Adaptation
(Handel’s Samson and the Art of Adaptation)
- Author(s):Maria Błaszkiewicz
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:29-43
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Samson; Handel; Milton; oratorio; libretto; adaptation
- Summary/Abstract:The paper explores the interpretative possibilities offered by the libretto to Handel’s Israelite oratorio Samson by Newburgh Hamilton, which is a double adaptation of the Biblical story and its dramatic rendering in John Milton’s Samson Agonistes. The specificity of the demands of the new genre of the oratorio in England and its dramatic and musical affinities is analysed on the example of a libretto combining the Scriptural and dramatic heritage of its sources with the requirements of the Baroque musical stage. The tripartite structure of the story inherited from Milton and the order of appearance of Samson’s visitors (father, woman, foe) allows not only for a tripartite presentation of the central figure, but also for the exceptional variety of musical expressions. As a result, the oratorio offers a full spectrum for emotional appeal, through penetrating sadness of the first part, romantic tensions of the central one to sombre military tones of the finale. Of the three, naturally the central theme is the most attractive from the point of view of the composer eager to display his talent and to satisfy the demands of the audience. This is also the only part where a Miltonic rendering of the story of Samson allows for a major female role, a factor not to be ignored. As a consequence, Newburgh Hamilton not only borrowed Milton’s addition to the story of Samson, the hostile giant Harapha, but also transformed Milton’s relatively simple figure of Dalila into a most complicated and beguiling character allowing for a true mastery of musical expressions and ambiguities.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Aeolian Harp and the Strain of Poetry – Musical Imagery in P.B. Shelley’s Selected Verse
The Aeolian Harp and the Strain of Poetry – Musical Imagery in P.B. Shelley’s Selected Verse
(The Aeolian Harp and the Strain of Poetry – Musical Imagery in P.B. Shelley’s Selected Verse)
- Author(s):Małgorzata Łuczyńska-Hołdys
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:45-55
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:poetry; music; Romanticism; Aeolian harp; P.B. Shelley
- Summary/Abstract:The references to composing and responding to music appear in the verse of the most famous Romantic poets from Blake to Byron. When Walter Pater famously said that all art should aspire to the condition of music, he might have been talking about the aesthetics of English Romanticism, as “what painting had been for the eighteenth century music became for the nineteenth, the model art” (Tetreault 144). Yet, it is in the poetry of P.B. Shelley that the musical imagery is perhaps the most prominent. Shelley’s favourite word to denote poetry seems to be “strain,” the sound of music being played or performed. Similarly, the image of the Aeolian harp as a trope for the poetic mind, receptive to the surge of inspiration, resurfaces in his verse with astounding consistency. The present article examines Shelley’s representations of poetry as music, particularly in relation to the image of the Aeolian harp, in two very well-known poems and one less popular lyric: “The Ode to the West Wind”, Alastor and “To Constantia, Singing”, and notes the implications this imagery has in relation to the ideas of gender.
- Price: 4.50 €
Content, Syntax, Punctuation – the Uses of Music in The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
Content, Syntax, Punctuation – the Uses of Music in The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
(Content, Syntax, Punctuation – the Uses of Music in The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell)
- Author(s):Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:57-65
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:ghost story; Gothic, music; soundscape; supernatural
- Summary/Abstract:There are many ways in which music can be a meaningful part of a literary work, either as a crucial aspect of the plot, or a structural backbone of the given narrative, or a device which helps to get a better grasp of the dynamic between the characters in the story and to articulate its message. This article discusses the ways in which music and various other sounds are used in "The Old Nurse’s Story", arguably Elizabeth Gaskell’s most accomplished ghost tale. In particular, the complexity of the soundscapes in "The Old Nurse’s Story" is analysed in connection with the dominant narrative patterns of the tale, the characters’ feelings and emotions, and the frightening effect carefully crafted by the author. Furthermore, because of the traits typically associated with the literary Gothic, especially the Female Gothic, the story is also examined in terms of its subversive, patriarchy-smashing potential and its treatment of the supernatural phenomena.
- Price: 4.50 €
Disharmonious Harmonies. Music in Charles Dickens’s "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"
Disharmonious Harmonies. Music in Charles Dickens’s "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"
(Disharmonious Harmonies. Music in Charles Dickens’s "The Mystery of Edwin Drood")
- Author(s):Joanna Kokot
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:67-80
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Charles Dickens; Edwin Drood; music; harmony; discordance; criminal puzzle
- Summary/Abstract:The paper will analyse the role of music in Dickens’s last and unfinished novel and its relation to the criminal puzzle which – for obvious reason – was left unsolved. Contrary to the traditional cultural associations (harmony, beauty, order), music in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" is related to darkness which shrouds the places where it is performed (the cathedral, Jasper’s room), it also functions as the background of various disharmonies (physical indisposition, quarrel, signs of hatred, fear). The theme of the only two religious songs that are referred to is sin and wickedness. Considering the fact that music is John Jasper’s domain, the discordance not only functions as an “ethical metaphor” and externalization of the man’s character but it also points to him as the murderer of his nephew. On the other hand, the aforementioned songs foreground the motif of repentance or turning away from sin, which undermines the ostensibly obvious conclusions concerning Jasper’s guilt. Like in a detective novel of the (much later) Golden Age period, the hints prompting the solution of the puzzle are provided here, though they are not univocal, leaving a shadow of doubt as to the guilt of the most obvious suspect. Yet, contrary to the conventions of the genre, they appear rather on the implied level of communication, available to the implied reader deciphering textual patterns and not merely “observing” the presented reality.
- Price: 4.50 €
Horace Walpole’s The Mysterious Mother – a Gothic Oedipus?
Horace Walpole’s The Mysterious Mother – a Gothic Oedipus?
(Horace Walpole’s The Mysterious Mother – a Gothic Oedipus?)
- Author(s):Jacek Mydla
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:83-102
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:Oedipality; Gothicness; story (fabula) and discourse (syuzhet); incest; amnesia; ignorance and self-knowledge
- Summary/Abstract:The article offers a comparative examination of Horace Walpole’s Gothic play, "The Mysterious Mother" (1768) and Sophocles’ "Oedipus Tyrannus", the goal being to assess the Oedipality and the Gothicness of these two plays. Two meanings of the Oedipal are distinguished: a unique narrative structure and a cluster of themes. There are many features which make us classify Walpole’s play as Gothic (e.g. its medieval setting). On the other hand, an adequate idea of the Gothic ought not to ignore the narrative dynamic typical of the genre, or the relation between story (fabula) and discourse (syuzhet). Thus, if Gothic plots narrate the finding out of identity-defining secrets, then the "Oedipus" is “more Gothic” than "The Mysterious Mother". Thematically, Walpole’s play is occupied with “horrid” transgressions (actual and possible acts of incest), yet there is in Walpole no sustained examination of the finding out of past crimes and the way in which this process impacts the protagonists’ and the community’s sense of identity.
- Price: 4.50 €
Spectacle of Pity: Hypocrisy and Sentiment in Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling
Spectacle of Pity: Hypocrisy and Sentiment in Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling
(Spectacle of Pity: Hypocrisy and Sentiment in Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling)
- Author(s):Przemysław Uściński
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:103-114
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:hypocrisy; sentimental novel; moral sentiment; Henry Mackenzie; Adam Smith
- Summary/Abstract:Taking as a point of departure Derrida’s discussion of the concept of pity in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s writings, I focus on the constructions of the sentimental subject in Mackenzie’s novel as well as the very insistence on spontaneity that the so-called “sentimental novels” seem to portray. In that context, I also briefly look at Mackenzie’s techniques of presenting in his novel a collection of scenes, or tableaux, that could be seen as theatrical. Mackenzie was also a playwright and the author of, among others, a comedy "False Shame, or the White Hypocrite", and a tragedy "The Prince of Tunis", the latter being published two years after his most memorable novel, "The Man of Feeling" (1771). The notion of theatricality is connected with that of hypocrisy, which etymologically refers to pretending, or playing a part in a spectacle. In that context I also examine some of the implications of critical readings of the aesthetics of sentimentality, as those readings often emphasize the paradoxical, or contradictory, character of this then fashionable literary trend, which has tended to deploy both the claims to “natural” goodness and the sense of pity inherent in humans (what Adam Smith referred to as ‘moral sentiments’) as well as the highly conventionalized techniques of writing, for instance those referring to body language (gesturing, blushing, shedding a tear), which itself, as a system of signs, becomes rehearsed and conventionalized, and thus potentially subject to dissimulation and hypocritical manipulation.
- Price: 4.50 €
Elements of Theatrical Performance and Sailors as Actors and Performers in Capt. Marryat’s Sea Novels
Elements of Theatrical Performance and Sailors as Actors and Performers in Capt. Marryat’s Sea Novels
(Elements of Theatrical Performance and Sailors as Actors and Performers in Capt. Marryat’s Sea Novels)
- Author(s):Marek Błaszak
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:115-127
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Marryat; sailor characters; actors and performers; Shakespeare; masquerade
- Summary/Abstract:Evidence provided by Capt. Marryat’s daughter shows that as a boy he was what would then be called a jester and nowadays could be regarded as a performer, and that – already at that early stage in his life – he was familiar with the theatre. After spending 24 years of his mature life in the Royal Navy and embarking on a literary career as a novelist of the sea, he demonstrated his knowledge of drama for instance by means of chapter headings in his works, which contain numerous passages from Shakespeare and several other celebrated dramatists, both native and foreign. Also as a typical 3rd-person omniscient narrator in his works, he was – occasionally at least – inclined to describe the narrative in terms of a theatrical performance, calling his characters actors, and the material setting of the action – the stage. Considering forms of theatrical performance in Capt. Marryat’s works, the most distinctly nautical are Saturnalia which transform his man-of-war almost literally into a floating playhouse. But apart from appearing as amateur actors, Marryat’s sailor characters quote Shakespeare, attend theatre and mingle with professional actors when they step on land. More often and with a more interesting dramatic effect, the writer casts them in the role of performers, adopting the idea of dressing up and representing oneself as a different person. In all probability Shakespeare was the inspiration behind this motif, but Marryat used it for different purposes – ranging from picaresque entertainment which is sometimes genuinely funny and sometimes merely farcical, through a more demanding synthesis of the comic and sublime, to a semi-humorous representation of some current social, religious and political issues.
- Price: 4.50 €
Let’s Dance a Gavotte, Mr. Frankenstein. Some Remarks on the Theatrical Adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Novel
Let’s Dance a Gavotte, Mr. Frankenstein. Some Remarks on the Theatrical Adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Novel
(Let’s Dance a Gavotte, Mr. Frankenstein. Some Remarks on the Theatrical Adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Novel)
- Author(s):Andrzej Weseliński
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:129-141
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Frankenstein; Mary Shelley; adaptations; intermediality; Presumption; The Man and the Monster; The Model Man
- Summary/Abstract:"Frankenstein" was not an immediate commercial success. The novel lay dormant until 1823, when its first theatrical production came, with Richard Brinsley Peake’s "Presumption: or, The Fate of Frankenstein", at the English Opera House in London. After the huge success of Peake’s "Presumption", many other playwrights were eager to capitalize on the attention to Shelley’s novel. The early theatrical adaptations of the 1820s introduce a Creature who loves music and women. In the Victorian period, he becomes a diverse figure who thrives as an articulate figure of the Victorian stage in which he longs to be a respectful gentleman.This paper aims to give an overview of a range of Creatures in the 19th century theatrical tradition who are often different from Shelley’s original Creature, with particular reference to the function of songs and music.
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The Theatrical Trope as a Narrative Device in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Theatrical Trope as a Narrative Device in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
(The Theatrical Trope as a Narrative Device in The Mystery of Edwin Drood)
- Author(s):Magdalena Pypeć
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology, British Literature
- Page Range:143-159
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:Dickens; theatre; performance; theatrical trope; self-fashioning; performance of self; The Mystery of Edwin Drood
- Summary/Abstract:The article analyses the theatrical trope as a recurrent leitmotif in Dickens’s last novel by which the novelist works out his themes and the inherently dramatic structure. Theatrical tropes such as-references to play-acting, pretending and assuming a disguise, designing a plot and scenery, fashioning oneself as an author, director, stage manager and actor of a play, awareness of performing on stage and being watched by an audience move the plot forward, develop characters, organise scenes and create the air of suspense and mystery in the narrative with a supposed foul crime in the centre. The underlying theatrical analogy is particularly visible in the character of John Jasper who assumes several roles throughout the narrative, that of a playwright, director and leading actor in the script for the ideal life he intends to live, created in the euphoria of opium-induced vision.
- Price: 4.50 €