Faculty Publications
Publication Date
2012
Disciplines
Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | Theatre and Performance Studies | Theatre History
Abstract
This paper argues that Victorian Shakespeare burlesques reveal an alternate literary history: a movement away from private, novelistic consciousness toward collaborative performance. Many materialist scholars fault post-Romantic critics for casting Shakespeare as a psychological realist and reading his plays as if they were novels. The burlesque treatment of Hamlet’s soliloquies, however, suggests a contrary trajectory, challenging the equation of Shakespearean character with psychological reflection. Rather than inaugurating a tradition of interiority, Hamlet’s soliloquies generate social speech in works like Gilbert’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, inviting audience participation. The burlesque imperative also inflects novels like Dickens’s Great Expectations, turning the internal debate of the canonical literary self into the public dispute of populist entertainment.
Document Type
Published Version
Rights
This article was published as: Pollack-Pelzner, Daniel. Shakespeare Burlesque and the Performing Self." Victorian Studies, vol. 54, no. 3, 2012, pp. 401-09.
No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or distributed in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Indiana University Press. For education reuse, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center. For all other permissions, contact IU Press at .
Original Citation
Daniel Pollack-Pelzner
Shakespeare burlesque and the performing self.
Victorian Studies, 2012, volume 54, issue 3, pages 401-409
doi:10.2979/victorianstudies.54.3.401
DigitalCommons@Linfield Citation
Pollack-Pelzner, Daniel, "Shakespeare Burlesque and the Performing Self" (2012). Faculty Publications. Published Version. Submission 55.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/englfac_pubs/55
Comments
This article is the publisher-created version, also considered to be the final version or the version of record. It includes value-added elements provided by the publisher, such as copy editing, layout changes, and branding consistent with the rest of the publication.