The uses of this world : thinking space in the drama of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Cary and Jonson

Issues of cultural space in early modern theater texts are addressed in this critical study. Explored are the fundamental changes in the social and philosophical organizations of space during this period and the ways in which theater dramatized them. The argument is made that Renaissance drama integrates models of social organization and spatial boundaries defined by property relations, economic hierarchies, historical customs, and kinship ties. The concept that space is not a neutral, fixed, and passive container, but instead a socially constructed process is demonstrated through analysis of such plays as Antony and Cleopatra , Hamlet , and The Winter's Tale . "What's Hecuba to him? Diegetic space and myths of belonging in Shakespeare's Hamlet Enclosing 'infinite riches in a little room' : the question of cultural marginality in Marlowe's The Jew of Malta 'Here is my space' : the politics of appropriation in Shakespeare's Antony and Cloepatra 'The hateful cuckoo' : Elizabeth Cary's Tragedie of Mariam and the collapse of domestic space Urban dystopia : the colonizing of Jonson's Venice in Volpone 'A kind of modern happiness' : The alchemist and the exploitation of provisional space. The Uses of this World examines how early modern theatre texts dramatize the ways in which cultural space is produced. It demonstrates that the theatre engaged fully with the fundamental change in the social and philosophical organization of space which took place in this period. Discusses plays by Shakespeare ("Hamlet" and "Antony and Cleopatra"), Marlowe ("The Jew of Malta"), Elizabeth Cary ("Tragedie of Mariam") and Jonson ("Volpone" and "The Alchemist")