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Shakespeare's Drama and Homosexuality
Mašková, Barbora ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
Slowly developing since the 1980's, queer theory became a very important sphere of gender studies of the end of the 20th century and affected not only the very perception of gender categories, but also intepretations of these in texts. The thesis concentrates on queering of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, describing relations which can be broadly characterized as homosexual - romantic or sexual attraction between members of the same sex, including homoerotic or homosocial aspect of these relationships. After establishing the textual grounds for these readings the text goes on to describe various stagings in theatre, television and film of Anglophone and Czech origin. In order to achieve representative illustration of the problem the established division of Shakespeare's drama is maintained, dividing the plays into three categories - comedies, tragedies and historical plays. One play of each of these categories is then discussed further. These are The Merchant of Venice for comedies, Othello for tragedies, and Richard II as a representative of historical plays. In the Merchant of Venice the discussed relationship is the one of Antonio and Bassanio, examining the possible motivation for Antonio's incredible generosity towards his young friend. The most famous homosexual interpretation of the...
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Shakespeare's Drama and Homosexuality
Mašková, Barbora ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
Slowly developing since the 1980's, queer theory became a very important sphere of gender studies of the end of the 20th century and affected not only the very perception of gender categories, but also intepretations of these in texts. The thesis concentrates on queering of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, describing relations which can be broadly characterized as homosexual - romantic or sexual attraction between members of the same sex, including homoerotic or homosocial aspect of these relationships. After establishing the textual grounds for these readings the text goes on to describe various stagings in theatre, television and film of Anglophone and Czech origin. In order to achieve representative illustration of the problem the established division of Shakespeare's drama is maintained, dividing the plays into three categories - comedies, tragedies and historical plays. One play of each of these categories is then discussed further. These are The Merchant of Venice for comedies, Othello for tragedies, and Richard II as a representative of historical plays. In the Merchant of Venice the discussed relationship is the one of Antonio and Bassanio, examining the possible motivation for Antonio's incredible generosity towards his young friend. The most famous homosexual interpretation of the...
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Shakespearean Minorities: Myth, Prejudice and Transformation
Bielková, Andrea ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
The thesis is concerned with the portrayal of the minorities in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Othello, the Moor of Venice. By means of close reading and the compare-and-contrast approach, the two main minority representatives - Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Othello in Othello - are analysed from various perspectives. A special attention is paid to the comparison of the way they are presented to the audiences and the way they present themselves; how do they operate in the majority society and how their identities transform throughout the plays. The introductory chapter defines the key terms relevant for the thesis, the structure of the thesis and its main goals. Chapter 1 provides an insight into the perception of Jews and Moors in the European context from the Middle Ages up to the Early Modern period. Special attention is paid to the variety of popular stereotypes, prejudices and myths circulating in England and how are these reflected in the portrayal of the two minorities in the literature of the period. The main focus in Chapter 2 is on the analysis of the mutual relationship between the majority and the Other in the two plays, on the respects in which the Other is differentiated from and distanced by the majority and how these two groups coexist in the given context....
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