ROMANCE, MASQUE, AND MIRACLE PLAY: THEOPHANIC TRADITIONS AND THE HYBRIDIZATION OF GENRES IN PERICLES AND CYMBELINE

dc.contributor.advisor Donovan, Kevin
dc.contributor.author Black, Andrew J.
dc.contributor.committeemember Donovan, Kevin
dc.contributor.committeemember McCluskey, Pete
dc.contributor.department English en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2018-06-05T20:04:56Z
dc.date.available 2018-06-05T20:04:56Z
dc.date.issued 2018-03-30
dc.description.abstract Lawrence Danson has argued that Shakespeare’s late plays hybridize elements of distinct genres. This tendency toward hybridization is especially evident in Shakespeare’s use of the earnest theophany. In Pericles, the goddess Diana appears. In Cymbeline, the god Jupiter. These two scenes are similar in their use of music, in their implicit pageantry, and in their being presented as idiosyncratic dream visions, available to and mediated through the experience of one character. The bodily appearance of a deity in this manner is arguably unique to these two plays. Since their first staging, these theophanies have been critically panned, either attributed to a co-author or subsumed under and thus conflated with the often recognized late-play “atmosphere of wonder.” More recent scholarship has established their Shakespearean authenticity and read the theophanies as, among other things, scientifically, socio-politically, or religiously significant. These theophanies ought to be read for their literary significance as well. They are consummate moments of generic hybridity, instances that hybridize theophanic traditions already present in three specific genres, webs of association according to Alastair Fowler: the medieval miracle and saint’s play, the romance, and the court masque. These genres would have been variously appealing and available in the heterogeneous spaces in which Shakespeare staged his late work. Shakespeare’s hybridizing participation in these theophanic traditions subsequently influences their later iterations.
dc.description.degree M.A.
dc.identifier.uri http://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/xmlui/handle/mtsu/5681
dc.publisher Middle Tennessee State University
dc.subject Late
dc.subject Masque
dc.subject Medieval
dc.subject Romance
dc.subject Saint's
dc.subject Shakespeare
dc.subject.umi English literature
dc.subject.umi Theater history
dc.thesis.degreegrantor Middle Tennessee State University
dc.thesis.degreelevel Masters
dc.title ROMANCE, MASQUE, AND MIRACLE PLAY: THEOPHANIC TRADITIONS AND THE HYBRIDIZATION OF GENRES IN PERICLES AND CYMBELINE
dc.type Thesis
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