ПІДХОДИ ДО ВИВЧЕННЯ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ РЕСТАВРАЦІЇ

This study applied cognitive-pragmatic, literary criticism and theory of theatre approaches to summarize findings on the dramatic discourse of English Restoration. In this article, I set out the main points of Stuart Restoration ideology, sum-marize findings on the predominant concepts of that time, substantiate that the institution of theatre became a leading ide-ological instrument during the English Restoration, and single out its two main functions: entertainment and dissemination of absolutist ideology. In this paper, the subject matter and dramatis personae of Restoration drama have been character-ized. The paper focuses on generalizing the research results of comparative studies of Restoration and Elizabethan drama which concern their scope, genres, and morality. The conclusions reached in the studies that reported on borrowings in repertoire from native, French and Spanish sources at the beginning of Restoration and the influence of English and con-tinental writers have been synthesized. Further investigation of English Restoration drama revealed an unprecedented genre variety and combination which demonstrated signs of development in different directions during the 1660s. In this article, I state that the existing studies have reported on active behaviour of Restoration audiences during the perfor-mances, describe usual patterns of their behavior, and make conclusions as to the direct influence of such behavior on the processes of drama production and perception. The existing research has demonstrated weak points in some key areas, such as Restoration audiences’ composition. Despite the fact that scholars point to various sources of information as to the theatre-goers’ personalities in the seventeenth century, there is still no consensus of opinions on this issue. Although Restoration drama research demonstrably improved over the 20th and 21st centuries, further research on Elizabethan and Restoration drama cognitive construals of the world, comparative analysis of original plays and adaptations, literary genres origin and development, interactional patterns of viewers and characters of Restoration drama is recommended.Key words: English Restoration theatre, dramatic discourse, play, ideology. У статті наведено узагальнення результатів наукових досліджень, присвячених дискурсу часів англійської Реставрації, з позицій когнітивно-прагматичного, літературного й театрального підходів. У дослідженні окреслено основні положення ідеології Реставрації Стюартів, узагальнено знахідки наукових досліджень, присвячених вивченню основних концептів того часу, обґрунтовано, що інститут театру став провідним ідеологічним інструментом за часів англійської Реставрації, та виділено дві основні його функції: розваги й розповсюдження ідеології абсолютизму. У роботі описано тематику й схарактеризовано персонажів драматичних творів часів англійської Реставрації. Наукова розвідка фокусується на узагальненні результатів наукових досліджень, присвячених порівнянню масштабів охоплення тематики, жанрів і моралі драматичних творів часів англійської Реставрації та драматургії часів королеви Єлизавети Тюдор. У дослідженні також синтезуються знахідки наукових розвідок, присвячених запозиченням у репертуарі з англійських, французьких та іспанських джерел на початку епохи англійської Реставрації, а також впливу власне англійських та європейських авторів. Подальше вивчення драматургії часів англійської Реставрації демонструє безпрецедентне розмаїття та поєднання жанрів, що демонструють ознаки розвитку в різних напрямах у 1660 роки. У статті стверджується, що наукові дослідження повідомляють про активну поведінку глядачів на виставах часів англійської Реставрації та робиться висновок про те, що така поведінка безпосередньо вплинула на процеси створення та сприйняття драматичних творів. Наявні дослідження демонструють прогалини в основних сферах, таких як контингент глядацької аудиторії вистав часів англійської Реставрації. Не зважаючи на той факт, що вчені вказують на різні джерела інформації щодо складу театральної глядацької аудиторії в сімнадцятому столітті, досі не існує єдності поглядів на це питання. Хоча дослідження драматургії часів англійської Реставрації значно покращилися у XX і XXI століттях, рекомендовано вивчення концептуальної картини світу в драматичних творах часів англійської Реставрації та королеви Єлизавети, порівняльний аналіз оригінальних п’єс та адаптацій, виникнення та розвитку літературних жанрів, моделі взаємодії глядачів і персонажів у п’єсах часів англійської Реставрації.Ключові слова: театр часів англійської Реставрації, драматичний дискурс, п’єса, ідеологія.

Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration Theatre to YouTube, Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens (2020)

Review of: Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration Theatre to YouTube, Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens (2020)The Arden Shakespeare, London and New York: Bloomsbury, 264 pp.,ISBN 978-1-35006-864-3, h/bk, £65.00, p/bk, £19.99

Introduction

This chapter introduces Restoration theatre and Restoration cosmopolitanism, a form of cosmopolitics born out of the newly energized merger of vigorous global ambitions with an intensified striving for sophistication — the convergence, we might say, of the risky and the risqué — and on display on stage. It emerged in the context of two major factors: first, that the monarch and much of the court had spent many years in exile during the civil wars, and second, that during those years they witnessed ways in which the continental monarchs and their courts had enriched themselves through trade, aggression, and plunder in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The chapter explores Restoration cosmopolitanism as engaged, critiqued, and embodied by the theater, and as a force, like the Enlightenment itself, with profoundly mixed implications. It explains how the book alters standard narratives about Restoration drama by showing how attention to this highly contested cosmopolitanism, which grew out of the period's most intriguing accomplishments and disturbing atrocities, reveals an otherwise elusive consistency among comedy, tragedy, heroic plays, and tragicomedy; disrupts a generally accepted narrative about early capitalism; and offers a fresh perspective on theatrical performances.

Twice Have the Trumpets Sounded

Probably no single aspect of the semiotics of performance is more critical than the conventionalized signals that inform the audience that they are entering or leaving the liminal world of performance, and that the signs they will receive between these two signals are to be interpreted not necessarily as they would be in everyday life, but according to the codes of the performance situation. A clear example of one familiar modern sign for the ending of the performance is, of course, the curtain call. Throughout the history of theatre, the ending of the performance has most commonly been signaled by visual means – the curtain call, the bringing up of the house lights, the lowering of the house curtain, the general dance of the performers. When we consider the various means by which the beginning of a performance is indicated, however, we find that a significant number of them are in fact not visual but sonic – the first, second and third music in Restoration theatre, the trumpet fanfares at Stratford (Ontario) the “trois coups” of the traditional French theatre, the traditional playing of “God Save the Queen” in British theatres, and Ellen Stewart’s ringing of the hand bell for years at La Mama. In certain cases, the semiotics of sound have been prioritized over those of sight for the sake of summoning audiences, but most often they are already assembled and so other dynamics are at work. This essay will consider some of the most important uses of sound in this particular semiotic function, that is, as a signal for the audience to experience various theatrical works with a performance-oriented consciousness.

Restoration Theatre and the Novel

This chapter explores the broad cultural transition from drama to novel during the Restoration period, which triggered one of the most productive periods in the history of the London stage. However, when it comes to the eighteenth century proper, the novel is more likely to be identified as the century's most significant and appealing popular genre. The chapter considers why the novel has largely superseded drama as the literary form to which ambitious and imaginative literary types without a strong affinity for verse writing would by default have turned their attention and energies by the middle of the eighteenth century. Something important may have been lost in the broad cultural transition from drama to novel. This chapter, however, contends that many things were preserved: that the novel was able to absorb many of the functions and techniques not just of Restoration comedy but of the theatre more generally.

Dignity Overpowers Conspiracy of Race Politics and Mercantilism in Thomas Southerne’s Oronooko

John Dryden describes Thomas Southerne as “pure” in reference to the purity of his language, and Alexander Pope delineates Southerne in his “Epistle to Augustus” as an “elderly dramatist skilled in expressing ‘the passions’” and cites him along with Johnson, Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Wycherley, and Rowe as great English playwrights” (qtd. in Kaufman 10). However, not many critics are that generous to Southerne, the only playwright courageous enough to bring a black face on to the English theater in 1695, except Shakespeare who did it with Othello in 1603. The best position critics rank Southerne, author of ten plays, is as the sixth best playwright in English Restoration Theatre. Probably, because of the parasite formula that was in vogue in the 17th century when Southerne wrote Oronooko and which he profoundly capitalized on to write his most famous play, he is not particularly regarded as one of the ingenious playwrights of his era. At best, many critics regard Southerne’s talent as falling short of the mercurial abilities of Dryden, Etheridge, Wycherley, Congreve, and Otway. Some critics, however, are of the view that although Southerne was not fashionably original, his creativity in his ability to refashion and reconfigure the original works he preyed on to make them refreshing and entertaining, should render him as one of the best during the apogee moments of the Restoration era. In this piece, I argue that the antimony of racial politics and the salience of mercantilism in Southerne’s Oronooko dignify women and minorities, even as it simultaneously agitated and mollified the nerves of dealers and supporters of the slave trade.

‘We have this day, expell’d our Men the Stage’: Dating the Prologue and Epilogue of The Parson’s Wedding

<p>Scholars of Restoration theatre have given contradictory accounts as to which all-female production of Thomas Killigrew’s <em>The Parson’s Wedding</em> the existing prologue and epilogue belong to. This note argues that out of the two productions in the Restoration period – the first of which took place in October 1664 and the second in June 1672 – the surviving prologue and epilogue were most likely written for the second production. Combining evidence gathered from historical records as well as from textual analysis, this note is the first study to comprehensively investigate this conundrum. </p>