A Srudy on the Functions of Cultural Representations in the Reception of Shakespeare's Works

1991 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 02451060
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 英語・英文学(アメリカ語･アメリカ文学)
• Research Institution: University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: TAKAHASHI Yasunari University of Tokyo, Department of English, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (20012297)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TANJI Ai University of Tokyo, Department of English, Associate Professor, 教養学部, 助教授 (90133686) ; TAKAMURA Tadaaki University of Tokyo, Department of English, Associate Professor, 教養学部, 助教授 (10092256) ; NARITA Atsuhiko University of Tokyo Department of English, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (30017363) ; IZUBUCHI Hiroshi University of Tokyo Department of English, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (40016621) ; YAMANOUCHI Hisaaki University of Tokyo Department of English, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (30108203) ; TAKADA Yasunari University of Tokyo, Department of English, Associate Professor (10116056)
• Project Period (FY): 1990 – 1991
• Keywords: Representation / Shakespeare / Reception / The Modern / Text / Culture / Universality / Particularity

Research Abstract

The functional roles of cultural representations Shakespeare's works have had to play in their reception can be classified in the following three categories. (1) Such concept as was not yet given a culturally fixed representation in Shakespeare's times but was gradually to gain its cultural fixation in representation ; e. g., the representation of the "revolutionary assassination" in Julius Caesar was to be provided with historical substantiation in the course of the modern Western history, which is formed by such significant revolutions as the Glorious Revolution and the French Revolution. In contrast, what was conceived as pastoral in the last plays was later to be given a culturally marked representation, "pastoral. "(2) Such concept as was given a culturally fixed representaion in Shakespeare's times but was gradually to lose its cultural fixation in representation ; e. g., the ancient world of "the Roman Plays" was dintinctly characterized by its differences and particularities, i. e., Romanitas, but it was to be universalized, under the influence of the encomium of Shakespeare, into the representational world common to everyone, i. e., Humanitas. (3) Since the mid-nineteenth century Shakespeare's works themselves have become a mode of representation which holds valid almost everywhere and any time : if there be any work of art for the entire humanity it is Shakespeare's. This incomparable functional role Shakespeare has come to enjoy was made possible by the as much incomparable editorial accomplishment represented by the "Globe edition" of Shakespeare's text.