Shoreditch, the Liberties and Eastcheap--- Licentiousness and History on Shakespeare's Peripheral Stage (II-II)

Project: National Science and Technology CouncilNational Science and Technology Council Academic Grants

Project Details

Abstract

Shoreditch, the Liberties and Eastcheap: Licentiousness and History on Shakespeare’s Peripheral Stage This book-writing project was designed as a two-year project. The first year (from August 2009 to July 2010) was approved and I am currently working on it. This application is for the second part of the project (from August 2010 to July 2011). I intend to write a book on the licentious spirits in Shakespeare’s history plays by exploring their interconnection with licentious features in the Renaissance Liberties and also by analyzing the thrill engendered by the Bard’s risk of tempering with history and with dominant social and political discourses. My book will borrow perspectives from New Historicism and social theories on city space. Eastcheap, where Hal plays with Falstaff, is a place that epitomizes licentious spirits. The discussion will stress on the significance of Eastcheap and it will also examine other significant unruly characters such as rebellious commoners and defying women to demonstrate that such licentious characters within Shakespeare’s history plays reflect the licentious spirits of the peripheral stages. The project can be considered an extension of my NSC research project (2004-2005) entitled Fools, Tricksters and Drama: The Representation of the Comic in Shakespeare's History Plays, which enabled me to publish a paper, “Comic Spaces in Shakespeare’s History Plays,” in NTU Studies in Language and Literature (Dec. 2007). While doing the abovementioned project, I had lots of interesting ideas which have not been included into the published paper because of the limitation on the length of an acceptable journal article, so I intend to turn them into useful elements for my book. I also plan to make use of some of the analyses in my unpublished Ph. D. dissertation entitled Interfering Voices: Women and History in Shakespeare’s History Plays, which was completed in June 2000. The present project was inspired by Museum of London’s thrilling announcement of the discovery of Shakespeare’s first playhouse in Shoreditch on August 6, 2008. Jack Lohman, director of Museum of London Archeology, said that the discovery offers “a tantalising glimpse into Shakespeare’s city.” Times on Line London Correspondent, Fiona Hamilton, wrote about this Shoreditch find: “Located outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, where puritanical magistrates and City leaders frowned on the debauchery of the theatre movement, Shakespeare and other playwrights were free to express themselves.” This speculation upon the site seemingly coheres with features of the Liberties depicted both by Steven Mullaney in The Place of the Stage: Licence, Play and Power in Renaissance England and Stephen Greenblatt in Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, yet it overlooks the risks involved in theatrical activities. By linking the location of the peripheral stage to Shakespeare’s risky dramatizing of English historiography, a subject presumably under stringent censorship, my proposed book hopes to draw attention to the fascinating licentious spirits inherent in the Bard’s history plays. After more than four months of research for this year’s project, I have a rather good mastery over materials on contemporary theories on city space and materials on the city culture of London during Renaissance England. This will serve as my theoretical framework for my book. I believe that the prospect of my book-writing project is a promising one.

Project IDs

Project ID:PE9912-0068
External Project ID:NSC99-2410-H182-041
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date01/08/1031/07/11

Keywords

  • Shakespeare
  • the Liberties
  • Shoreditch
  • Eastcheap
  • history plays
  • licentiousness

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