2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Shakespeare and English Cartography in the 16th and 17th Century
| Project/Area Number |
15520205
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Doshisha University |
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Principal Investigator |
KATSUYAMA Takayuki Doshisha University, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (30204449)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2006
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| Keywords | Shakespeare / Early Modern English Drama / Maps |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of my research project, which investigates the relationship between English map-making and Shakespeare's plays, is to explore how maps as cultural products were represented on the stage, as well as to analyze how the foundation of England as a nation-state was consolidated by the crown. Maps have been generally considered a corpus of scientific and objective information based upon geographical discovery and cartographic knowledge. Revisionists in the late 1980s, however, sought to reconsider traditional ideas about maps and to adopt a new hermeneutic approach to map-making by applying the strategy of deconstruction. They tried to prove that even the most apparently "scientific" of maps, behind a mask of a seeming neutrality, essentially "created" or "shaped" the terrain they charted, in accord with cultural codes and traditional social values ; they did not merely mirror or reflect the terrain they mapped out, in some mythical cartographic "objectivity." It is undeniable th
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at, however "scientifically" refined a map may be, it is also the expression of the cartographer's worldview, insofar as maps are always the product of human beings; undeniable as well is the fact that maps reflect the ideology associated with the time and place of their production. Map-making, as conducted under the official auspices of Queen Elizabeth of England, was somehow always "meant" to justify her assumption of power, her right to administer the affairs of the nation as a whole, and to centralize government within her own realm; at the same time, map-making reflected the interests of the oncoming British empire, as it absorbed the neighboring countries of Ireland and Scotland. The ideological centralization of power through cartography can also be traced in the antagonism between the court and the country as this is depicted on the stage, in the political conflicts portrayed within the court itself in the plays, and in the incorporation of the Irish, the Scottish, and the natives of the New World into the traditional hierarchy of England. My project will show how Shakespeare's plays-specifically 2 Henry VI, Macbeth, Coriolanus and The Tempest-constituted an arena wherein these ideological struggles were represented and rehearsed for audiences in early modern England. Less
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Research Products
(11 results)
