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Author: Marvin Rosenberg
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
Published: 1992
Total Pages: 340
ISBN-13: 9780874134810
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →In what Norman Sanders has termed [a] now classic study, noted Shakespearean Marvin Rosenberg sets out to discover how the complex, troubled characters of the play have been interpreted by actors and critics from Shakespeare's time to the present.
Author: Marvin Rosenberg
Publisher:
Published: 2016-08-30
Total Pages: 328
ISBN-13: 9781684220205
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →2016 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In what is now considered a classic study, noted Shakespearean Marvin Rosenberg sets out to discover how the complex, troubled characters of the play have been interpreted by actors and critics from Shakespeare's time to the present. Rosenberg's study of the successive stage editings of Othello--some of them to reduce playing time, others demanded by the taste and moral sense of each new age--provides a running commentary of social and cultural history, and shows how those cuttings affected, as well as revealed, the actors' concepts of the characters. "Othello" is the most erotic, the most sensual in language and imagery of the tragedies, and its heavily sexual atmosphere, so suitable to the seventeenth century, offended later cultures. The eighteenth century tried to "refine" it, and the nineteenth, particularly the age of Victoria, to refine it even further, but the essential form of the play survived.--From the Dust Jacket. Contents: Part. 1. The beginning. The actor's share -- Othello in the Restoration -- pt. 2. The eighteenth century -- The eighteenth century actors -- pt. 3. The nineteenth century. Kean -- Mcready, Fechter, Irving -- Booth -- Forrest -- Salvini -- The Victorian Iago -- The Victorian Desdemona -- pt. 4. The twentieth century. The modern Othello -- The modern Iago -- pt. 5. Othello and the critics. In defense of Iago -- In defense of Othello -- In defense of Desdemona -- In defense of the play: I -- In defense of the play: II -- Appendix: A kind word for Bowdler.
Author: Marvin Rosenberg
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
Published: 1992
Total Pages: 444
ISBN-13: 9780874134827
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"LEAR: Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? / Who is it that can tell me who I am?" "Centuries of critics and actors have tried to tell, but Lear's identity, and the meaning of his action in the play, are still touched with enigma." "This book seeks Shakespeare's intentions in King Lear in new ways. It explores major interpretations of distinguished actors and directors as well as of critics from England, the United States, France, Belgium, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland. Is the play unsuited for the stage, as Charles Lamb - and others - have declared? How, in fact, has it been staged, and how visualized by critics? Is Lear designed to be a frail and aging old man? A powerful image of authority? Mad, or senile, to begin with? A kindly old father? Everyman? All of these? None? Does the play end with redemption? Unmitigated despair? Is it Christian? Pagan? Mr. Rosenberg confronts these and other questions from the base of his study and personal experience of the play." "To deepen the theatrical side of that experience, he began, as he did in his The Masks of Othello, with an involvement in the staged play: he directed and acted in Othello, and he followed a production of King Lear through two months of rehearsal and performance. One by-product of this intense participation was a discovery of some special qualities in the language of the play." "To achieve a better understanding of these qualities, Mr. Rosenberg put Lear's vocabulary through a computer, and established a concordance of every word both for the play as a whole and for each character. Interesting structural elements in Shakespeare's language become apparent." "Recognizing the difficulty, for a critic, of responding afresh to Shakespeare's craftsmanship in characterization and in arousing expectation, Mr. Rosenberg also arranged to expose the play to spectators who had never seen or read it. The response of this naive audience, after attending performances, was curious and illuminating. The author believes that any critical approach must be used that will increase our understanding of Shakespeare's work."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: Lindsey R. Swindall
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Published: 2010-10-27
Total Pages: 242
ISBN-13: 1604738251
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Lindsey R. Swindall examines the historical and political context of acclaimed African American actor Paul Robeson’s three portrayals of Shakespeare’s Othello in the United Kingdom and the United States. These performances took place in London in 1930, on Broadway in 1943, and in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1959. All three of the productions, when considered together, provide an intriguing glimpse into Robeson’s artistry as well as his political activism. The Politics of Paul Robeson’s Othello maintains that Robeson’s development into a politically minded artist explicates the broader issue of the role of the African American artist in times of crisis. Robeson (1898–1976) fervently believed that political engagement was an inherent component of the role of the artist in society, and his performances demonstrate this conviction. In the 1930 production, audiences and critics alike confronted the question: Should a Black actor play Othello in an otherwise all-white cast? In the 1943 production on Broadway, Robeson consciously used the role as a form for questioning theater segregation both onstage and in the seats. In 1959, after he had become well known for his leftist views and sympathies with Communism, his performance in a major Stratford-upon-Avon production called into question whether audiences could accept onstage an African American who held radical—and increasingly unpopular—political views. Swindall thoughtfully uses Robeson’s Othello performances as a collective lens to analyze the actor and activist’s political and intellectual development.
Author: Virginia Mason Vaughan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1996-12-05
Total Pages: 262
ISBN-13: 9780521587082
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Shakespeare's Othello has exercised a powerful fascination over audiences for centuries with its portrayal of destructive jealousy. This study is a major exercise in the historicisation of Othello in which the author examines contemporary writings and demonstrates how they were embedded in the text of Othello: discourse about conflict between Turk and Venetian treatises on the professionalisation of England's military forces, representations of Africans and blackamoors, and narratives depicting jealous husbands. The second section traces Othello's history in England and the United States from the Restoration to the late 1980s, using illustrations where appropriate. Each chapter highlights a specific historical period, actor or production to demonstrate how and why elements from Shakespeare's text were emphasised or repressed. Othello is revealed as a significant shaper of cultural meaning.
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2018-04-05
Total Pages: 254
ISBN-13: 1108548393
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This third edition of Othello offers a completely new introduction by Christina Luckyj, providing readers with a nuanced understanding of early modern theatre and culture, and demonstrating how careful attention to Shakespeare's language, staging and dramaturgy can open up fresh interpretations of the play. Tracing critical and performance trends up to the present day, Luckyj shows how the drama taps into contemporary cultural paradoxes surrounding blackness, marriage, and politics to create a powerful double perspective, illuminating the creative and destructive power of stories and of human love itself. Supplemented by an updated reading list and extensive illustrations, this edition also features revised commentary notes, offering the very best in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.
