Papers by maria valentini
Time & Society, 2015
The question of time is part of a general psychological reorientation which takes place in the Re... more The question of time is part of a general psychological reorientation which takes place in the Renaissance and appears in many of Shakespeare’s plays as a theme upon which to reflect. Time, no longer beneficial, becomes a source of anxiety: feudal time, linked to land and cultivation, providing comfort because the eternal repetition of natural cycles gives the illusion of reversibility, and therefore of a time which is redeemable, gives way to the notion of linear time, irreversible, unredeemable, the time of History (cf. Le Goff, Panofsky, Deleuze). In Antony and Cleopatra, we find these different concepts of time battling against each other; Rome’s opposition to Alexandria, and Caesar’s opposition to Antony represent also two contrasting notions of time. Caesar’s time, and indeed Rome’s time, is very close to this new, modern concept, whose roots lie also in the springs and coils of renaissance machinery, time linked to power and money; wasting time means ‘being similar to beasts,...
, 2018" (p. 414), which staged some scenes from Oedipus at Colonus and King Lear, thus creating, ... more , 2018" (p. 414), which staged some scenes from Oedipus at Colonus and King Lear, thus creating, as the authors call it, a "particular kind of contaminatio" where "[d]eliberate, risk-taking hybrids and paradoxes abound" (p. 415). Far from being the expected, predictable book about the reception of the classics in early modern England, the originality of this essay collection lies in having chosen to focus on two specific tragedies, i.e., Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus and Shakespeare's King Lear, which are not inextricably correlated yet share "intersections" (to quote from the book's title). This choice of a specific, restricted-also niche-content allows the volume's contributors to scrutinise the full array of potentials offered by the two plays' interdiscursive network within a wide range of coherent methodological frameworks whose application reveals that the links of this network are even tighter than as hypothesised in Bigliazzi's introduction.
The article discusses Shakespeare's massive use of mythological allusions in one of his greatest ... more The article discusses Shakespeare's massive use of mythological allusions in one of his greatest tragedies-Antony and Cleopatra, whose eponymous protagonists seem to re-enact the myths of Hercules and Isis, only to become mythological, archetypal, legendary figures in their own right. References to Thomas North's Plutarch, to Cicero, Chaucer, Marlowe and other authors substantiate Shakespeare's conscious and elaborate use of mythology in this fascinating play.
Theatre is all in the present and Antony and Cleopatra is made up of a "series of presents", to u... more Theatre is all in the present and Antony and Cleopatra is made up of a "series of presents", to use Peter Szondi's famous definition 1. In this play, however, more than in any other by Shakespeare, memory, not implicit but the explicit memory of the past, becomes part and parcel of what, not by chance, we call representation. In fact, a sign that memory should be included amongst the different strands which make up the varied fabric of this play is its most famous passage concerning the description of Cleopatra on the Cydnus made by Enobarbus; a description ("The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne […]" II.ii.191-226 2) which is the memory of an event evoked by Enobarbus for himself and for the Romans. The fatal encounter between the "peerless couple" which triggers off the tragedy and determines the history of the world is a staged as a memory which Enobarbus delivers to himself, to the other characters and to us; we have made it our own, made it part of our * This article, adapted from Agostino Lombardo's Il fuoco e l'aria. Quattro studi su Antonio e Cleopatra, Roma, Bulzoni, 1995, is presented here in acknowledgement of the author's many innovating contributions that changed the perspective of reading Antony and Cleopatra in Italy.
This article discusses the uses of mythological allusions in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra w... more This article discusses the uses of mythological allusions in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra whose eponymous protagonists seem at times to reenact such myths as those of Mars and Hercules, or of Venus and Isis, yet at other times to debunk them. The chosen myths, however, are controversial in themselves and enhance the well-known ambiguities of the main characters and the multiple perspectives of interpretation of the play as a whole. Keywords : Antony and Cleopatra, Plutarch, Hercules, Isis, Venus, Mars
This brief paper aims at indicating the essential points of contact between Shakespeare and Keats... more This brief paper aims at indicating the essential points of contact between Shakespeare and Keats in order to try to understand what kind of relationship the romantic poet established with the Elizabethan playwright. In 1987 Robert White wrote the book Keats as a Reader of Shakespeare , which remains, in my view, the most exhaustive study on the topic, and this definition seems to me the most appropriate way to define this connection since Keats appears to be primarily a ‘reader’, a reader who is powerfully affected and inspired by his contact with Shakespeare’s works, rather than a scholar who interprets. This does not mean that Keats does not offer what we could define as critical comments in his letters, in reviews or even in some of the annotations on his own copy of Shakespeare’s plays, but he is not a Hazlitt or even a Coleridge; we could speak of reactions rather than analyses. In this light the paper attempts to examine the Shakespearean ‘traces’ present in Keats’ works. Key...
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Papers by maria valentini