Recapitulative scenes: Scenic rewriting and correspondence in "King Lear"

Christopher Thomas Nielson, Purdue University

Abstract

This dissertation elaborates and critiques A. C. Bradley's thesis that a Shakespeare tragedy is marked by repetition. Instead of delineating this repetition in order to structure the tragedy in terms of the movement toward catastrophe in the second half contingent upon the movement toward crisis in the first, this dissertation offers an analysis of replication as it pertains to individual scenes and amplifies the work on scenic construction by Emrys Jones, Mark Rose, and James Hirsh. The dissertation argues for scenes being revised throughout the play. The claim that scenes progress because of their correspondence with what precedes and what follows as much as by narrative causality argues against those who view the play as structurally weak, artificial in its dramatic development, and abounding with superfluous characters and gratuitous events. The dissertation, therefore, works toward clarifying the artistic achievement of the play.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Bache, Purdue University.

Subject Area

British and Irish literature|Theater

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