Heterotopian Disorientation: Intersectionality in William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth

This article reads William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth (2016) through the lens of Michel Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia to explore the film’s ambivalent gender and racial politics. The country house that Katherine Lester is locked away in forms a quasi-heterotopia, mediated through a disorienting cinematography of incarceration. Although she manages to transgress the ideological boundaries surrounding her, she simultaneously contributes to the oppression of her Black housemaid, Anna. On the one hand, the film suggests that the coercive space of the colony—another Foucauldian heterotopia—may threaten white hegemony: While Mr Lester’s Black, illegitimate son Teddy almost manages to claim his inheritance and, hence, contest the racialised master/servant relationship of the country house, Anna’s voice threatens to cause Katherine’s downfall. On the other hand, through eventually denying Anna’s and Teddy’s agency, Lady Macbeth exposes the pervasiveness of intersectional forms of oppression that are at play in both Victorian and twenty-first-century Britain. The constant spatial disorientation that the film produces, this article suggests, not only identifies blind spots in Foucault’s writings on heterotopian space as far as intersectionality is concerned, but also speaks to white privilege as a vital concern of both twenty-first-century feminism and neo-Victorian criticism.

On Gavriil Popov’s Symphony No. 1 (To the First Publication of the Score)

В статье рассматриваются вопросы, связанные с историей создания, исполнения, запрета и дискуссий вокруг Первой симфонии выдающегося отечественного композитора, выпускника Ленинградской консерватории Гавриила Николаевича Попова (1904–1972). Судьба сочинения оказалась трагической: исполненная лишь однажды, симфония была запрещена. Так произошла одна из первых «публичных казней» музыкального произведения — еще до печально известных публикаций об опере «Леди Макбет» и балете «Светлый ручей» Д. Шостаковича, положивших начало борьбе с «антинародным формалистическим направлением» в музыке. Долгие годы замалчивания привели к тому, что яркое достижение отечественной симфонической школы «выпало» из истории советского искусства. Усилиями музыковедов И. Барсовой, И. Ромащук, Е. Власовой, И. Воробьёва, дирижеров Г. Проваторова и А. Титова Первая симфония Попова была возрождена к жизни. Сейчас готовится к печати первое издание этого незаслуженно забытого произведения. The article discusses issues related to the history of creation, performance, prohibition and discussions which surrounded the First Symphony of the remarkable Russian composer Gavriil Popov. The fate of the composition turned out to be tragic: once performed, the symphony was banned. It was one of the first public “executions” of a musical work — even before the infamous articles of the newspaper Pravda about the opera Lady Macbeth and the ballet Light Stream by Dmitry Shostakovich, which marked the beginning of the struggle against the “anti-national, formalistic trend” in music. Long years of oblivion led to the fact that the Symphony “fell out” of the history of Soviet music. Through the efforts of such musicologists as Inna Barsova, Inna Romashchuk, Yekaterina Vlasova, Igor Vorobyov, conductors Gennady Provatorov and Alexander Titov, Popov’s First Symphony was revitalized. And now the question arises regarding the first publication of this undeservedly forgotten outstanding work of the Soviet music.

Шекспировские источники темы «потаённой вины» и греховного сознания в «Поэме без Героя» Анны Ахматовой

Shakespearean sources for the theme of “hidden guilt” and sinful conscience in Anna Akhmatova’s Poem Without a Hero. The article examines the semantic, narrative and figurative parallels between Akhmatova’s Poem Without a Hero and Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Akhmatova’s particular interest in Shakespeare in general and Macbeth in particular is taken into account. It is suggested that certain situations and images in Macbeth could be the source of some semantic components of the theme of secret guilt and sinful consciousness, which is important for Akhmatova’s self-understanding and creative being. Among such Shakespearean semantic and formative elements, the story of the death of Macduff’s family and the complex of motifs associated with the crimes and torments of conscience of Lady Macbeth are highlighted. It is suggested that the first theme refers to the semantics of the painful theme of “generic guilt” for Akhmatova which is associated with the fate of her son. The semantic tension and emotional expressiveness associated with the image of Lady Macbeth is evident in some of the allusions, both incidental and perhaps planned by the author, which link the tragedy and the poem. Moreover, Lady Macbeth may occupy an important place in the complex system of authorial doubles and masks that are presented in Akhmatova’s poetry.

THE INFLUENCE OF LADY MACBETH TO MACBETH DOWNFALL IN SHAKESPEARE'S MACBETH

This research intends to depict the influences of Lady Macbeth to Macbeth downfall, and the effect of Lady Macbeth influences to Macbeth. In doing this research, the writer uses objective approach. Objective approach is used because primary source of this research is literary work, the drama Macbeth. However, the analysis of drama Macbeth is based on the writer analysis and interpretation in accordance with the fact and evidences found in drama. By the analyzing the topic, it is found out that, the downfall of Macbeth not only caused by his own weakness but also bad influences of Lady Macbeth as a wife. The analysis shows that Lady Macbeth not only supports her husband to make the prophecy became true, but Lady Macbeth has controlled the mind set of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth influences her husband to did the crime in order the prophecy about Macbeth will be a king of Scotland became true. Finally, Lady Macbeth influences her husband to murder King Duncan. In the end, Macbeth cannot happy to all that He got, He fell guilt, unhappy and uncomfortable.

Crossings with Jatra: Bengali Folk-theatre Elements in a Transcultural Representation of Lady Macbeth

This paper examines a transcultural dance-theatre focusing on Lady Macbeth, through the lens of eastern Indian Bengali folk-theatre tradition, jatra. The wide range of experimentation with Shakespeare notwithstanding, the idea of an all-female representation is often considered a travesty. Only a few such explorations have earned recognition in contemporary times. One such is the Indian theatre-dance production Crossings: Exploring the facets of Lady Macbeth by Vikram Iyenger, first performed in 2004. Four women representing four facets of Lady Macbeth explore the layered nuances that constitute her through the medium of Indian classical dance and music juxtaposed with Shakespearean dialogues from Macbeth. This paper will argue the possibilities posited by this transgressive re-reading of a major Shakespearean tragedy by concentrating on a possible understanding through a Hindu religious sect —Vaishnavism, as embodied through the medium of jatra. To form a radically new stage narrative in order to bring into focus the dilemma and claustrophobia of Lady Macbeth is perhaps the beginning of a new generation of Shakespeare explorations. Iyenger’s production not only dramatizes the tragedy of Lady Macbeth through folk dramatic tradition, dance and music, but also Indianises it with associations drawn from Indian mythological women like Putana (demoness) and Shakti (sacred feminine).

Refrações medievais em Agustina Bessa Luís: Leonor Teles e Lady Macbeth

O estudo da receção da Idade Média nos séculos ulteriores, sobretudo na sua vertente criativa revela imagens do medieval e interrogações sobre o tempo presente. Partindo dos hipotextos medievais, Agustina Bessa-Luís reconfigura a imagem de Leonor Teles através da lente de Lady Macbeth. Na abordagem do conto “D. Leonor Teles”, inserido em Fama e Segredo na História de Portugal (2006), estudam-se as perceções do passado e interroga-se o sentido, as razões e as modalidades dessa presença medieval no imaginário contemporâneo, sendo certo que, como lembra Gómez Redondo (2006, p. 324), “toda pesquisa del pasado se practica para iluminar con ella el presente; no se ponen en pie estos ‘mundos posibles’ por simple ejercicio de arqueología literaria”. Numa perspetiva comparativa e sob o prisma do medievalismo, conclui-se que a autora concilia a atemporalidade com a referencialidade medieval para representar Leonor Teles num “sublime negativo” (Bloom, 1997) em que supera Lady Macbeth.