Discuss the ways in which Grotowski's proposals for 'Holy Theatre' can be related to the ideas about the function and purpose of performance which came out of the historical avant garde.
DISCUSS THE WAYS IN WHICH GROTOWSKI'S PROPOSALS FOR 'HOLY THEATRE' CAN BE RELATED TO THE IDEAS ABOUT THE FUNCTION AND PURPOSE OF PERFORMANCE WHICH CAME OUT OF THE HISTORICAL AVANT GARDE. Grotowski's work on a 'Holy theatre' with his Theatre Laboratory took place from 1959-70 after which he stopped producing theatrical work to carry out paratheatrical work. The term 'Holy Theatre' is focussed on making theatre more like ritual. Actors had to be trained thoroughly, not just rely on inspiration for their performance. In the search for ritual within the theatre, Grotowski sought a collective experience for the audience which, as a result of the decline of religion, is rarely found in late twentieth century societies. It is also important to establish that by using the term 'Holy theatre', Grotowski does not intend any religious connotation, he was in fact an atheist, 'holy' refers more to the ritual aspect of the theatre and the experience of the audience, which could be compared to experience brought on by a religious ceremony. The historical avant garde is the name given to the collective ideas and methods of theorists, writers and directors working in Europe from (for the purposes of this essay) 1895-1930 who saw opportunities for performance to act as a counter-culture and be like ritual. I have looked in particular at the work of Jarry, Apollinaire and Artaud, especially
Antony and Cleopatra Question: Explore Shakespeare's presentation of Domitius Enobarbus
Antony and Cleopatra Question: Explore Shakespeare's presentation of Domitius Enobarbus. Traditionally Shakespeare's use of the role of a chorus is seen to have been used as an insight for the audience into the prophesy of future events and what to expect throughout the play, usually by a secondary character. In 'Antony and Cleopatra', Shakespeare expands the role of the chorus within his presentation of Enobarbus. Enobarbus does not merely illustrate what consequences Antony and Cleopatra's actions will have, but plays a significant and vital character whose actions earn the admiration of the audience. Amid Antony's entourage is Enobarbus. Enobarbus is a high ranking officer who within the play is one of Antony's closest aficionados. Among the audience Enobarbus is seen as the thematic and moral centre of the play. Through the admired Enobarbus the power of love and loyalty are seen to overshadow the logical reason and common sense of the mind. For example his emotional break down and reaction to his betrayal and desertion of Antony and of Antony's munificent response creates a sense of desolation behind his death. "I am alone the villain of the earth, My better service when my turpitude Thou dost so crown with gold!" At times, Enobarbus is very much a chorus figure observing the behaviour of those around him. His interpretation of certain situations brings
Compare the representation of family relationships in the work of 2 writers you have studied this term (Hamlet and Swift's 'Modest Proposal')
Compare the representation of family relationships in the work of 2 writers you have studied this term (Hamlet and Swift's 'Modest Proposal') These two texts are very different in many aspects. Not only in form, style and structure, but also in content. They show obvious differences with reference to family relationships. 'Hamlet' focuses on a single family with severe problems needing research into psychoanalysis to make these truly clear, whereas a 'A Modest Proposal' shows the problems of families in an Irish Society in the 18th Century, namely those of the poorer classes. The similarity between them is singularly that the families portrayed are unhappy and certainly not stereotypical. Swift's society is portrayed as miserable and in need of political help, Shakespeare's protagonist family, and indeed other more minor ones are crying out for help which they never get, and may have been far beyond. It is the way in which they are presented by the writers which needs further analysis. Swift's satirical taint on 'A Modest Proposal' makes it difficult to take much of the contents too seriously. However, his acute observations on society as a whole, and the way that we treat each other are both profound and sensible. He shows us a society which is impoverished and in dire need of help from it's government. He is trying to make clear the full horror of Ireland's economic
Was Friar Laurence to blame for Romeo and Juliets deaths?
English-Shakespeare coursework Was Friar Laurence partly to blame for Romeo and Juliet's deaths? Friar Laurence is a highly respected Holy, profoundly religious man, that is regarded with respect and has a reputation of deep wisdom with a high social status, as he is well a well-known member of society, in the city of Verona. For many years he has received countless confessions and has strong beliefs in his religion and in life itself. Romeo knows the Friar very well, and he has known him for a long time, Romeo is a very close friend of Friar Laurence's, as Friar Laurence would often here many of Romeo's problems, dealing with young Romeo's dilemma's and lovers, sharing his wisdom and experience with Romeo, to help him through his troubled times. Bringing them closer together, Romeo giving the trust and confidence that he can confide everything with the Friar. Romeo is Cleary very fond of the Friar and would regard the friars decisions and advise often as the very best, and with high priority. Which means Romeo would take Friar Laurence's advice seriously and could easily follow any misjudgements that the Friar could possibly make. Both the feuding Capulet's and Montague's are close with the Friar, and I am sure Friar would have given countless advice and heard many confessions each family, giving him massive insight and knowledge into both families and the spiteful,
Contrast the first occasion when Romeo and Juliet are together, at the Ball, Act 1 scene 5, with the last, Act 5 scene 3, when Romeo breaks into the Capulet tomb. Show how in each case the setting and atmosphere contribute to the power of the episode.
20 February 2002 Romeo & Juliet Contrast the first occasion when Romeo and Juliet are together, at the Ball, Act 1 scene 5, with the last, Act 5 scene 3, when Romeo breaks into the Capulet tomb. Show how in each case the setting and atmosphere contribute to the power of the episode. Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, has been variously dated from 1591 to 1596. Over the centuries it has been one of Shakespeare's most successful plays. It was acted in 1662, soon after the re-opening of the theatres. The play begins in Verona, Italy, a city that has had its peace shattered by the feud between two prominent families; the house of Montague and the house of Capulet. The Chorus tells us amidst this ancient grudge, "a pair of star-crossed lovers" will take their lives and their death will extinguish their parent's rage. Romeo and Juliet forfeit their lives partly because of their parents' hatred and prejudice, and this is foreshadowed throughout the play with reference to the stars and heaven. Two of the most powerful Scenes in the play, include the occasion when Romeo and Juliet meet at the ball and instantly fall in love, amidst an atmosphere full of joy but also tension, as Romeo's intrusion is discovered, and the final scene where Romeo breaks into the Capulet's tomb, to be with his love Juliet and ultimately takes his life as he believes she has taken hers;
Contrast an Elizabethan and a modern audience's understanding of Hamlet's views".
Danièle Evans 29.12.01 'Hamlet thou hast cleft my heart in twain' "Most productions present Gertrude and Ophelia as sympathetic victims of Hamlet's cruelty. As your starting point, refer to either the closet or the nunnery scene, and, paying close attention to the language, show how it reveals the interaction between Hamlet and the women characters here and throughout the play. Contrast an Elizabethan and a modern audience's understanding of Hamlet's views". As the main female characters in the play, Ophelia and Gertrude are subjected to the worst of Hamlet's madness. 'Hamlet' depicts the popular Elizabethan viewpoint and treatment of women which is palpably clear from Hamlet's contemptuous and disrespectful behaviour. This is especially obvious in both the nunnery and the closet scenes, primarily from the language and exchanges between the characters. The 'nunnery' scene, mainly focusing on the exchange between Hamlet and Ophelia, is structurally similar to the later 'closet scene' of Act 3 Scene 4. 'Soft you now', says Hamlet as he catches a glimpse of his former love, 'The fair Ophelia', a comment which is instinctively tender. Notably, it also echoes his description of Ophelia at her grave, in Act 5 Scene 1, where he openly declares his love for her, admitting that 'forty thousand brothers/Could not with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum'. It is also at
Many of the plays revolve around the central question of 'killing the King.' What are the political
Many of the plays revolve around the central question of 'killing the King.' What are the political Kings are everywhere in Shakespeare, from Hamlet to Richard the Second, from Henry the Eighth to Macbeth; many of the plays contain a central element of a king or autocratic head of state such as Julius Caesar, for example. They focus more specifically on the nature of that person's power, especially on the question of removing it; what it means on both a political and psychological level, how it can be achieved, and what will happen afterwards. This is not surprising, considering the times Shakespeare was living in: with the question of who ruled and where their authority came from being ever more increasingly asked in Elizabethan and Jacobean times the observations he makes are especially pertinent. Kings and kingship also lend themselves well to drama; the king is a symbol of the order (or disorder) of the day and a man who possesses (almost) absolute authority and the status that accompanies that, whilst in contrast he is also a human being with the ordinary weaknesses of that condition. Shakespeare is also said to have loved the drama of killing; according to legend he would "make a speech when he killed a calf" in his father's abattoir (Richard Wilson: 'A Brute Part'.) The dramatic image of sacrifice is particularly prevalent in Julius Caesar; Brutus says: " Let us be
"In relation to other factors, how far was Henry's desire for divorce the main cause of the Reformation in England in the 1530's?"
"In relation to other factors, how far was Henry's desire for divorce the main cause of the Reformation in England in the 1530's?" During the 16th Century, we see the beginnings of what turned out to be perhaps the greatest shift in religious doctrine from Catholicism to Protestantism England has ever experienced; The Reformation. Henry VIII's break from Rome in the 1530's certainly helped cause this. Nevertheless great historical debate has raged for many years over the reasoning behind severing the link with the Papacy. The most popular argument is that it was Henry's strong desire for divorce from Catherine of Aragon -- in an attempt to re-marry to ensure the succession with a male heir -- that bought about the break, where as others dispute this, campaigning for the case that it was mass social discontent with the existing church that was the cause. Some have even taken the stance that the exclusive reason for the break was based on Henry VIII's greed; his further want for greater power, control and wealth, while others suggesting that he was taken advantage of by ambitious members of the Church and the Inner Circle. Soon after his accession in 1509 Henry married Catherine of Aragon, nevertheless this was not a straightforward marriage, it required Papal dispensation based on the fact that Catherine had previously been married to Henry's brother Arthur, who had died
A poetics of the Elizabethan theatre is inseparable, in crucial respects, from a poetics of power.
A poetics of the Elizabethan theatre is inseparable, in crucial respects, from a poetics of power. To approach the above discussion it must first be made clear what is meant by "poetics." Todorov, in his book "Introduction to Poetics" (pg.7) defines poetics as a "name for everything that bears on the creation or composition of works having language at once as their substance and as their instrument." This helps us to understand what is meant by "A poetics of the Elizabethan Theatre" - an exploration of all the external and internal influences that shaped and made the said theatre what it was - but it is less helpful in trying to assess what is meant by "a poetics of power." However, with more thought, we can see that the above definition can be easily adapted to enable an interpretation of the meaning of this phrase to be made. "A poetics of power" will be taken to mean an inquiry, essentially, into the nature of power and its causes and effects, along with the inevitable moral questions which accompany it. More specifically it could be taken to mean an investigation into the factors influencing perceptions of power in Elizabethan times. To begin to examine whether a poetics of the theatre is inseparable in any respect from a poetics of power it is helpful to look at the mood and society of Elizabeth I's reign and the creative period of
Write on the relation between the real and the ideal in Conrad's novels
Write on the relation between the real and the ideal in Conrad's novels At every level of his story-telling, Conrad throws together pairs of opposites, the tension between which (in his best work) seamlessly progress from the local to the universal. One might consider man and nature in Heart of Darkness where Kurtz is superficially degraded to the state of a "wandering and tortured thing"[1] crawling on all fours. Yet that dualism enters the metaphysical realm with his jarring and inarticulate cry - "the horror! the horror!"[2] -recalling Shakespearean tragedy such as Lear's animalistic quartet of howls.[3] Had Kurtz not been carefully prepared as a mythic figure, its own pretension might render it absurdly out of place. The graduation is ably handled. This essay shall concentrate on another key pair of opposites, that of the real and the ideal: the above example merely illustrating that this is not the only axis of its type running through Conrad's work. Using Heart of Darkness and Under Western Eyes as exemplars - both use a narrative frame, both concern the meeting of Western culture with something inimical to it, both include a narrator struggling to understand the plight of a man under psychological disintegration - it is possible to discern a common pattern. In the narratives itself, idealism is in opposition to Suffering, but the narrative merely reveals that the