Narrating the Self in English Renaissance Drama: Storytelling and Self-narration in Thomas Kyd’s the Spanish Tragedy

Demir Alihodžić

Abstract


This paper examines the use of techniques of storytelling and self-narration on the English stage in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with an emphasis on Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. The playwrights of the period were negotiating their way in a new world in which language was a medium which was coming more and more to be respected, and those who could wield it had the potential for advancement in ways never before conceivable. In the forefront of those negotiating for such a place through their art was Thomas Kyd. He may be considered the pioneer in the development of the self on the English stage in the early modern period through storytelling and self-narration as representational techniques. The paper also examines some of the profound changes in dramaturgy which took place in the period in question and which culminated in the drama of Thomas Kyd.

Keywords


English Renaissance Drama; Thomas Kyd; The Spanish Tragedy; storytelling; self-narration;

Full Text:

PDF

References


Albright, Daniel (1994), “Literary and Psychological Models of the Self” in: Robyn Fivush and Ulric Neisser, Eds., The Remembering Self: Construction and Accuracy in the Self-Narrative, 19-40, Cambridge UP, Cambridge UP

Braunmuller, A.R. (1990), “The Arts of the Dramatist”, The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama, Cambridge UP, Cambridge UP, 53-90.

Briggs, Asa (1983), A Social History of England, The Viking Press, New York

Bruner, Jerome (1994), “The ‘Remembered’ Self”, in: Robyn Fivush and Ulric Neisser, Eds., The Remembering Self: Construction and Ac curacy in the Self-Narrative, 41-54, Cambridge UP, Cambridge

Chamberlain, Mary, Paul Thompson (1998), “Introduction: Genre and Narrative in Life Stories” in: Mary Chamberlain and Paul Thompson, Eds., Narrative and Genre, 1-19, Routledge, London

Chute, Marchette (1949), Shakespeare of London, E.P.Dutton, New York

Cohen, Walter (1987), “Political Criticism of Shakespeare”, in: Jean E. Howard and Marion F. O’Connor, Eds., Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology, 18-46, New York: Routledge

Dollimore, Jonathan (1984), Radical Tragedy, The Harvester Press Ltd., Brighton

Empson, William (1994), “The Spanish Tragedy (I)”, Essays on Renaissance Literature II, Cambridge UP, Cambridge, 17-37.

Fletcher, A.J (1985), “Honour, Reputation and Local Officeholding in Elizabethan and Stuart England”, Order and Disorder in Early Modern England, Cambridge UP, Cambridge, 92-115.

Fivush, Robyn, Ulric Neisser, Eds. (1994), Remembering Self: Construction and Accuracy in the Self-Narrative, Cambridge UP, Cambridge UP

Greenblatt, Stephen (1980), Renaissance Self-Fashioning, U of Chicago P, Chicago

Greenblatt, Stephen, Ed. (1982), The Power of Forms in the English Renaissance. Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim

Gurr, Andrew (1992), The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642, Cambridge UP, Cambridge

Hall, Joan Lord (1991), The Dynamics of Role-Playing in Jacobean Tragedy, Macmillan London

Demir Alihodžić Narrating the Self in English Renaissance Drama: Storytelling and Self-Narration in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy DHS 1 (2016), 79-100

Hillman, Richard (1997), Self-Speaking in Medieval and Early Modern English Drama, Macmillan, London

Howard, Jean E., Marion F. O’Connor, Eds. (1987), Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology, New York: Routledge

Kyd, Thomas (1995), The Spanish Tragedy in: Katharine Eisaman Maus, Ed., Four Revenge Tragedies, 1-91, Oxford UP, Oxford

Maus, Katharine Eisaman (1995), “Introduction”, Four Revenge Tragedies, Oxford UP, Oxford, ix-xxxi.

Norton, Thomas, Thomas Sackville (1963), Gorboduc, in: A.K. Mcllwraith Ed., Five Elizabethan Tragedies, 69-130, Oxford UP, London

Thomas, Brook (1989), “Preserving and Keeping Order by Killing Time in Heart of Darkness”, in: R.C. Muffin, Ed., Heart of Darkness: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism, 239-257, New York: St. Martin’s

Yachnin, Paul (1997), Stage-Wrights, U of Pennsylvania P, Philadelphia


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


ISSN: 2490-3604 (print) ● ISSN: 2490-3647 (online)

Društvene i humanističke studije - DHS is under the Creative Commons licence.