2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study of Garden Scenes in English Renaissance Plays
| Project/Area Number |
18520162
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
ICHIKAWA Mariko Tohoku University, Tohoku University, Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Professor (80142785)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
|
| Keywords | Acting Space / Play texts / Staging / Locale / Garden |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Through examining early modem English play texts, I have collected garden scenes. It is interesting to discover that most events taking place in these garden scenes can be divided into the following 5 kinds: a. romantic encounters; b. intimate talks and confidential conversations; c. melancholic meditations; d. eavesdropping; e. intrusion.
Clearly, while writing plays, Shakespeare and his contemporaries had in their minds the traditional idea and image of the garden that had been mediated to them through a variety of literary and cultural traditions.
A close analysis of these garden scenes has shown the following important things about their staging.
1. A verbal reference to a garden could create a particular atmosphere on the stage, transforming the stage space into a private, quiet, but potentially vulnerable place.
2. The garden setting could enhance the secret, romantic, meditative, or ominous mood of the scene.
3. Even if, however, the dialogue includes no specific reference to the garden setting, the scene's locality might somehow be suggested indirectly by non-verbal means.
4. The structure of the stage was useful for staging garden scenes. If designated, a stage door, the stage balcony, the curtained space, and the stage posts could serve variously as the garden door, a window over the garden, an arbour, and trees.
|
