Romantic Actors and Bardolatry: Performing Shakespeare from Garrick to Kean: 16 (Studies in Shakespeare)

«Bardolatry», that whimsical term referring to Shakespeare’s rise to canonical status as well as to his worshippers’ adulation, solidified within the theatrical discourses of the eighteenth century and the British Romantic era. Celestine Woo examines the era’s four most celebrated Shakespeare performers in London – David Garrick, John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons, and Edmund Kean – arguing that they broadened and altered the boundaries of Shakespearean discourse in specific ways, offering and modeling novel paradigms by which to apprehend Shakespeare, and thus contributing to the growth of bardolatry as a discursive phenomenon. Using Pierre Bourdieu as a model, Woo traces the development of Shakespearean discourse as a field of cultural production, shaped by these actors. By examining their disparate approaches to performing Shakespeare, she reveals that Shakespeare as an icon became commodified, politicized, gendered, and increasingly appropriated within literary and dramatic discourse as a result of the influences of these four performers. Her analysis deepens our understanding of the processes by which Shakespeare was institutionalized as a figure representing national character, human nature, and the breadth of human experience. Cover Table of Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction “ Romantic Acting” Romantic Shakespeare CriticismL the Closet and the Stage Chapter 1 David Garrick Eighteenth3Century Acting Style and Theory of Human Passions Characterology and Garrick’s “Romantic” Style MobilityF MockeryF and Mass Media Marketing The Actor as Scholar Garrick Creates FandomL The zKOV Jubilee Commercializing Shakespeare through Theatrical Practice Garrick as Prophet and “Twin Star”L Afterlife and Apotheosis Chapter 2 John Philip Kemble The Aesthetic of DignityF ArtF and Pageantry Characterology and Evolving Dramatic Theory ScholarshipF AdaptationsF and Language Politics and Nationalism The Old Price RiotsL Public Appropriation of Shakespeare Conclusion Chapter 3 Sarah Siddons Characterology Interiority Affect and Emotion Character Development via Relationships Palpability and the Body Domesticity and Moral Values Gendered Superlatives Engagement with Discourse and Theory Pygmalion Reversed Siddons as HamletL Breaching the Breeches Part EntertainmentF StardomF and Pop Culture ConclusionL Siddons as Female Shakespeare Chapter 4 Edmund Kean The Affective Point Ousts the Gestural The Proverbial Flashes of Lightning Radical ShakespeareL Kean’s Coriolanus Cockney KeanF Representative of the Masses Kean as Shakespearean Icon Kean’s Theory The Star System Nature vsO ArtPifice’ “ New Readings” and Textuality Bibliography "The Stranger's Voice is a beautiful testimony to what Julia Kristeva has to offer depressed women when her writings are framed and presented by a thoughtful pastoral theologian. Carol L. Schnabl Schweitzer makes a compelling case for the role of the denial of the mother's voice in the development of a woman's self-alienation and resulting depressions, and she does so without resorting to maternal images formed under the aegis of a patriarchal Christianity. She also makes wonderful use of Kristeva's understanding of "for-giving" to envision prospects for healing and renewal. To write knowledgeably about Julia Kristeva's work requires a sophisticated mind, but to make her work truly and genuinely accessible to other women is a pastoral gift. Some women who are experiencing depression will find this book inherently therapeutic while others will find the encouragement they need to seek a counselor who will help her discover the life that is already stirring within them. Men The Stranger's Voice examines some of Julia Kristeva's major psychoanalytic texts which focus on themes of women's depression, feminine idenity, motherhood, and the need to believe as these themes relate to the power of religious language in a therapeutic relationship. The central thesis of the book is that attention to critiques of religious discourse offered by those (in this case, Julia Kristeva) in the psychoalytic tradition will facilitate a more fully nuanced approach to an interdisciplinary model for pastoral theology Especially those who have sensed that the denial of the mother's voice has played a critical role in their own self-alienation and its melancholy moods, will discover that this book has much to offer them as well." Donald Capps, Princeton Theological Seminary --Book Jacket Introduction. Bardolatry and romantic actors David Garrick: commodifying Shakespeare John Philip Kemble: consecrating Shakespeare Sarah Siddons: feminizing Shakespeare Edmund Kean: ironic icon, transgressive tabula rasa.