Tragic men comic women: Shakespeare between genre and gender .

1. Tragic men comic women: Shakespeare between genre and gender. Il corso si propone di inquadrare la produzione drammaturgica shakespeariana nella prospettiva del genere tragico e di quello comico e in relazione alle specifiche politiche di genere sessuale. Con particolare riferimento alle logiche patriarcali attivate e decostruite nei testi verranno analizzate due commedie e due delle grandi tragedie.

2. BIBLIOGRAFIA: testi primari • The Taming of the Shrew (Mondadori) • The Merchant of Venice (Feltrinelli) • Hamlet (Marsilio)

3. Bibliografia critica Stanley Wells and Lena Cowen Orlin (eds.), Shakespeare. An Oxford Guide, Oxford, Oxford U. P., 2003 (Part I, Shakespeare’s life and times, cap. 1, 2, 3; Part II Shakespeariangenres, cap. 15, 16 (pp.175-185), 18 (pp.212-223); Part III Shakespeare criticism, cap. 29 (pp.411-423), 30, 36 R. Ciocca, “La bisbetica in terapia” in Memoria di Shakespeare (a cura di A. Lombardo), 3/2002 Lidia Curti, “Tracce, intervalli, indugi” in Ombre di un’ombra. Amleto e i suoi fantasmi (a cura di L. Curti), Napoli, IUO, 1994 E. Showalter, “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism”, 1985, (materiali didattici) S. Freud, Il Perturbante (any edition) Mourning and Melancholia (materiali didattici) Una storia della Letteratura inglese (XVI-XVII secolo) Una storia dell’Inghilterra (XVI-XVII secolo)

4. Bibliografia integrativa(12 cfu) • W. Shakespeare, Othello • Stanley Wells and Lena Cowen Orlin (eds.), Shakespeare. An Oxford Guide, Oxford, Oxford U. P., 2003 (tutto) • Laura Di Michele (a cura di), Aspetti di Othello, Napoli, Liguori, 1996

5. Bibliografia consigliata, obbligatoria per i non frequentanti • Un manuale di Storia dell’Inghilterra (secoli XVI e XVII) • Un manuale di storia della letteratura inglese (secoli XVI e XVII)

6. FILMOGRAFIA • La bisbetica domata, Franco Zeffirelli, 1967 • Il Mercante di Venezia, Michael Radford, 2004 • Amleto, Franco Zeffirelli, 1990 • Otello, Oliver Parker, 1995 (12 cfu)

8. ELIZABETHAN AGE • RELIGION • SOCIETY AND ECONOMY •  POLITICS • CULTURE • PROS AND CONTRARIES • ELIZABETHAN WORLD PICTURE • THEORY OF ELEMENTS • ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

10. RELIGION • Anglican reformation • Anticlericalism • Factors Rivalry between powers • Christian Humanism • Thomas More (1477-1535) • John Colet (1466-1519) • Erasmo (1467-1536)

11. collateral factors The English Bible (1526) William Tyndale (1495-1536) contingent factors Divorce from Catherine of Aragon determinant factors Publication of Luther’s 95 theses (1517) ACT OF SUPREMACY (1534) Spoliation of monasteries 1536 The Tudors, 3rd series, 1 disc, 1 episode (Pilgrimage of grace) 1539

12. ANGLICAN CHURCH HENRY VIII doctrinal conservatism EDWARD VIfervent protestant, Mary and Elizabeth out of succession

13. MARY (bloody)catholic reversal, Spanish Marriage (Philip II) ELIZABETH I‘a middle way’ Uniformity Act (public observance, private freedom)

14. Society and Economy Landed gentry: increase in number, power and wealth (from dissolution of monasteries and patronage from the crown) The Queen’s Justices of the Peace were the local most influential exponents of the gentry.

15. Londonwas absorbing more and more of the home and foreign commerce, a portent in size for England and even for Europe, at the death of Mary :100. 000 inhabitants, at the death of Elizabeth 200.000 The power and privilege of the Mayor and citizens with their militia formed a state within the state, a society bourgeois and protestant.

16. The greatest social change was the expansion of overseas enterprise. Merchants sought out distant markets compelled by the loss of Calais under Mary and the rivalry with Spain in the Low Countries. These changes caused distress and unemployment in cloth manufacture but in the long run new markets were found: Russia, Prussia, The Baltic, Turkey, Persia, India (Cape of Good Hope).

17. 1600 East India Company Seafaring and discoveries laid the path to colonialism (even though Newfoundland and Virginia were only temporary). Colonization became a means for personal betterment and national strength.

18. Politics Despite several crises, a relative peace was kept (victims of violence – Savages, Irish, Catholics and dissenters, political enemies- were not so numerous as in other periods or other countries).

19. Wales Bosworth field placed a Welsh dynasty on the throne of England. No religious difference arose to divide the people. There was no movement to colonize the country by robbing the natives of their land. Ireland: Tudor policy was disastrous. The dominus became rex to strengthen English control. Catholicism made Ireland suspect and dangerous.

20. Scotland: The two countries had a common interest in defending the Reformation from internal and external enemies. With the death of Elizabeth the two crowns were reunited on the head of James Stuart. Before there had been the crisis with France and Mary Stuart.

21. France and Scotland had had a common policy against England: James V had married the French Catholic Marie de Guise, their daughter Mary Stuart (niece of Margaret sister of Henry VIII) married the heir to the French throne: Francis II. When he died the French and the Scottish together with the English Catholics plotted to put Mary on the throne of England.

22. Spain: After the execution of Mary Stuart, Philip II of Spain sent the Armada. In 1588 England defeated Spain. Failure of Leicester in the Low Countries Failure of Essex in Ireland Essex rebellion

23. Culture Printing and Translating diffused knowledge (censure) In the days of Erasmus, Renaissance had been confined to scholars and the king’s court. In the Elizabethan Age classicism filtered through into the theatre and the street. English language touched its moment of fullest beauty and power. Minds, set free from medieval bonds were not yet caught by Puritan fanaticism. The merry old England of folklore and popular tradition was still there. London and the court were centres of cultural import from abroad and local production and diffusion in the reign.

24. The Golden Age Poetry (Sidney, Spenser, Daniel, Drayton); Prose (Lyly, Greene, Ralegh, Hakluyt); Drama (Kyd, Marlowe, Shakespeare)

25. The Elizabethan world picture ORDER AND DEGREE

26. The Elizabethan world picture THE CORRESPONDING PLANES GOD DIVINE or ANGELIC SUN UNIVERSE or MACROCOSM COMMONWEALTH or BODY POLITIC MAN or MICROCOSM LOWER CREATION KING HEAD LION

27. THE COSMIC DANCE THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES “La visione del mondo medievale con i suoi cerchi concentrici che, dai cori angelici e dalle sfere planetarie, discendevano fino al mondo sublunare armoniosamente digradando in un vortice sempre più denso e materiale, forniva all’artista un modello coerente e ordinato circonfuso dal suono misterioso della musica delle sfere e variegato di colori … e di luminosità …” (F. Ferrara, Shakespeare e le voci della storia)

28. USO RETORICO: “His blood, which disperseth itself by the branches of veins through all the body may be resembled to those waters which are carried by brooks & rivers over all the earth, his breath to the air … the hairs of man’s body … to the grass which covereth the upper face and skin of the earth.” Walter Raleigh, History of the World

29. USO POLITICO: “In the earth God hath assigned kings princes with other governors under them, all in good and necessary order. The water above is kept and raineth down in due time and season. The sun moon stars rainbow thunder lightning clouds and all birds of the air do keep their order.” (Homily of Obedience)

30. ELEMENTHUMOURQUALITYPLANET EARTH MELANCHOLY COLD/DRY SATURN WATER PHLEGM COLD/MOIST MOON AIR BLOOD HOT/MOIST JOVE FIRE CHOLER HOT/DRY MARS

31. FOOD IS MADE OF THE 4 ELEMENTS. LIVER (KING OF LOWEST PART OF BODY: VEGETATIVE ) CONVERTS IT INTO 4 HUMOURS. THEY ARE CARRIED TO THE HEART (KING OF MIDDLE PORTION OF BODY: SENSITIVE). THE HEART REFINES THE HUMOURS AND SENDS THEM TO BRAIN (KING OF TOP OF HUMAN BODY:RATIONAL)

32. HISTORY FOR THE ELIZABETHANS THE MOVING FORCES OF HISTORY WERE: PROVIDENCE, FORTUNE AND HUMAN TEMPERAMENT The wheel of fortune

33. Elizabethan Age: pros and cons • (I phase): • Political stability • Religious pacification • doctrinal moderatism • royal navy • overseas trade/ discoveries • amelioration in inhabiting conditions • support to arts (music, painting, poetry, theatre, prose) and civilian architecture (II phase): • Social immobilism (no social reforms) • Degeneration of administrative and fiscal apparatuses • Purchasing of public offices • Corruption • Impoverishment of the Crown • Defensive foreign politics • After Mary Stuart’s affair: persecution of Catholics; hardship against Puritans • Impoverishment of military forces • Famines in the 90’s • Lack of direct heirs

34. ELIZABETHAN THEATRE • PUBLIC • Circular • Outdoor Large audience (3.000 spectators) • Cheap (1-2 pence) • Majority standing • Heterogeneous audience • Suburbs • Adult companies • PRIVATE • Rectangular • Indoor • smaller (700 spectators) • expensive (6 pence) • all seated • selected audience • City • Boy companies

35. THE GLOBE THE BLACKFRIARS

36. INNYARD THEATRES COURT THEATRES The Boar’s Head The Great Hall (Whitechapel) (Hampton Court) The Red Bull The II Banqueting Hall (Clerkenwell) (Whitehall)

37. ELIZABETHAN PUBLIC THEATRE Antecedents: Booth-stage in Marketplaces or village-greens Great halls in noble houses Refectories of colleges Inn-yards Bear-baiting arenas

40. The Main Public Theatres The Theatre 1576-97 The Curtain 1577-1627 The Rose 1587-1605 The Swan 1595 (De Witt) I Globe 1597-1613 (fire) II Globe 1614-44 (demolished) I Fortune 1600-21 (fire) II Fortune 1623-25 (plague) 1649 (partly demol.) The Hope 1614-56 (demolished)

41. Basic elements: circular auditorium with galleries Square projecting platform Two upstage door A balcony Stage-posts with curtains A stage-trap Tiring-house

42. Conventions: Flexibility Multiple repertoire Symbolism Emblems Costumes Boy-actors for female roles Anachronism No space/time/genre unities Music (before, after, during the performance, at intervals)

43. CHARACTERISTICS OF ELIZAB. PUBLIC THEATRE UNCERTAINTY: endemic plague since 1348 Theatres closed in 1580, 86, 87, 94,1604, 1605 Theatres closed during hot season (summer tours in the country cfr. Hamlet) Dramatic season in London: Sept. to Christmas (twelve days festivities, chosen plays at court) Jen. to Feb. (Lenten interruption)

44. THEATRE TRANGRESSIVE CHARACTER Contiguity with vagrancy, festive and riotous revelry, laziness, class proximity, sexual ambiguity, profane, irreverent, blasphemous character, susceptible of producing street disorders and tumults. Sometimes connected to political threat (1601 Essex and Richard II) 1597 The Isle of Dogs by Ben Jonson & Thomas Nashe (lost) performed at the Swan Theatre by the Earl of Pembroke’s Men caused a riot.

45. The Master of the revels selected the plays to be performed at court but also exercised control and censorship upon the texts Ordinance of the Privy Council: “ Her MAJESTIE being informed that there are verie greate disorders committed in the common playhouses both by lewd matters that are handled on the stages and by resorte and confluence of bad pople, hath given direction that not onlie no plaies shal be used within London or about the citty or in any publique place during this tyme of sommer, but that also those playhouses that are erected or built only for such purposes shall be plucked down.”

46. PATRONAGE 1572 Act for punishment of vagabonds: “Illegal for strolling players to perform without authorization” Companies took the livery of the Patron (Leicester’s Men; Sussex Men; Queen’s Men; Lord Strange Men; The Admiral’s Men; Lord Chamberlain’s Men later to become The King’s Men etc.)

47. Letter by Lord Chamberlain to Lord Mayor of London to ask leave for his Men to play at The Cross and Keys Tavern: “…the which I praie you the rather to doe for that they have undertaken to me that where heretofore they began not their plaies till towards fower a clock, they will now begin at two and have done betweene fower and five, and will nott use anie drums or trumpettes att all the calling of peopell together; and shall be contributories to the poor of the parishe.”

48. 1642 beginning of the civil war I closure ordinance 1647 II ordinance 1649 players arrested at theRed Bull definite closure of theatre till 1660 (Restoration Charles II)

49. ABOUT WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE All that is known with any degree of certainty concerning Shakespeare, is that he was born at Stratford upon Avon, married and had children there, went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems and plays, returned to Stratford, made his will, died and was buried. (George Steevens, XVIII century)

50. Elements of Biography He had … fallen into ill company; … some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing engaged him with them … in robbing a park that belonged to sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman … and in order to revenge that ill usage, he made a ballad upon him. This is said to have been so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree that he was obliged to leave his business and family for some time, and shelter himself in London. (Rowe, 1709)