...Theatrical Realism Theatrical Realism is the attempt of playwrights to mirror reality on the stage. That is to say, these playwrights intend for the audience to see themselves on the stage without fanfare – a stripped-down form of theatrical arts. Realistic theatre does not possess the magical elements of theatre that preceded it, but this is the strength of realism. Anton Chekhov echoes this point, “I wanted to tell people honestly: ‘Look at yourselves. See how badly you live and how tiresome you are.’ The main thing is that people should understand this. When they do, they will surely create a new and better life for themselves”. Realistic playwrights stood on the shoulders of the giants of theatre who preceded them by continuing to look at their times and people, but shattered new earth by asking audiences to look in to themselves. Realism is theatre in which people move and talk in a similar manner to that of our everyday behavior. The style has been dominant for the last 120 years. It holds the idea of the stage as an environment, and not just an acting platform. Some of the ideas flourishing in realism’s formative years were Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Both of these works profoundly impacted the intelligentsia. They called into question the foundations on which the people of the world had built their truths. Marx, especially, can be seen as an important figure of the realistic movement as he sought to awaken the working...
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...night Garden and Swallows and Amazons How do ‘the lure of the real’ (Bogan,A.2006) and the ‘power of the fantastic’ (EA300,Block 4) work together in any two of the set texts in Block 4? ‘The lure of the real’ (Bogan,A.2006) and the ‘power of the fantastic’ (EA300,Block 4) are used to create dramatic effect and depth to narratives, in interesting and diverse ways. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive. When the real and the fantastic combine, truly delightful and often informative, stories are created. Novels differ in their proportional use of realism and fantasy. Realism is commonly used to convey a sense of believability, to give gravitas to characters and to enable a child reader to understand through the presentation of the familiar and recognisable. Fantasy can be viewed as a “departure from consensus reality.” (Hume cited in EA300. Block4.p169). This could exist in the form of imaginary play, dreams, unworldly creations or literal impossibility. This essay will concentrate on Swallows and Amazons and Tom’s Midnight Garden. Each text has different approaches to the use of reality and fantasy. However, they convey similar themes and messages through various presentations of ‘the real’ and ‘the fantastic.’ Ransome and Pearce anchor their stories in reality by creating a “powerful sense of place and” a “celebration of freedom underpinned by family security.” (EA300, Block4) Ransome achieves this by distinct geographical representation of the Lake District...
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...Cast of Madame Bovary: A Study of Realism and Romanticism Through the Characters of the Novel Gustave Flaubert is considered one of the most influential novelists of the Realist period. His most famous work, Madame Bovary, earned both heavy criticism and fame for its controversial style and mockery of Romanticism. The novel itself even went to trial, being banned for a while due to immorality (Various, 1). Many elements commonly found in Romantic novels were criticized and, to an extent, parodied in Madame Bovary. This stems from Flaubert having a cynical view of others, as well as a generally pessimistic outlook on life that was influenced by a young philosopher, Alfred Le Poittevin, who he met at an early age (Barzun, 1). This paper will describe how Flaubert goes after Romantic stereotypes within his masterpiece, looking at several of the characters and how they relate to both Romanticism and Realism, and to Flaubert’s personal life. Emma Bovary, Madame Bovary herself, is the biggest insult to Romanticism within the novel. Her self-view as a wronged lady forced into a situation lower than her status reflects many heroines of Romantic works who, while happy with their status, have the touch of nobility that Emma sees herself having. An excellent example of this is in chapter eight, when Emma participates in the ball. She, while being very beautiful, possesses almost no grace (being a farm girl, after all) and clumsily falls on the Vicomte. While she takes it as a tender...
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...Magic Realism in Francis’s Journey to the Past In the novel Ironweed by William Kennedy, the protagonist, Francis Phelan, is constantly trying to escape his past. He leaves the town he lives in to avoid dealing with problems and decisions he made years before. Unfortunately for Francis, a man named William Faulkner once said “the past is not dead. In fact, it is not even the past.” Many people go through life not realizing how much the past truly does affect them. However, running from the past is inevitable and will always find its way back into one’s life. One can see how William Kennedy used magic realism by making the living and the dead coexist. Not only did the dead walk among the living, but they were able to converse with one another. Francis’ infant son, Gerald, was only thirteen days old when he accidentally slipped out of his diaper. When the baby hit the linoleum floor, he broke his neck bone and died. Francis only drank a few beers when he dropped the child and he never forgave himself for the death of his baby boy. The memory haunted him and eventually led to Francis’ fleeing of the town. Years later, he returns and finds himself a job working at a cemetery. When he approaches Gerald’s grave, the memories from his past hit him hard. He talks to the grass and shows the deep sympathy and guilt that he feels. Kennedy uses elements of magic realism by allowing Francis to express his emotions with Gerald and by giving Gerald the ability to respond back. Oddly enough...
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...influence theatre and drama throughout the world particularly within western society and has helped create one of the greatest play writes in history William Shakespeare. Some important playwrights are Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophes. Ancinet Greek Costumes The costumes in the ancient Greek theatre also have a symbolic significance in the way the production is understood. Since the hypocrits were all male, it was necessary to make them look female for female roles. "In order to have a female appearance, they were playing wearing the ‘prosterniad’ before the chest and the ‘progastrida’ before the belly. In order to look taller and more impressive they were wearing ‘cothornous’ (wooden shoes with tall heels)".The shoes that they wore had no left and right, but were the same for both sides. They also wore long robes with vertical stripes. The female masks had bigger mouths and eyes. The Chorus The chorus was one of the most important components of the play. It narrates and reflects on the action. Without them, the audience would have no background information, and the play would be more confusing. Originally the chorus had twelve members. Sophocles added three more to make it fifteen. The chorus entered from the two paradoi in three rows of five people. They formed little squares between them. The chorus was called by different names for each kind of play, reflecting a different emotion. In a tragedy, it was solemn and called "emmelia." In a comedy, it was funny and called "codrax...
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...T. Anderson depicts a modernised future, where basic social value and attitudes seem to be crumbling under the changes that technology brings about. The text challenges out social perception of a trans-humanistic utopia, as it explores ideas such as isolation, over-dependance of technology and deterioration of humane common sense, maturity and intelligence. ‘Feed’ illustrates a satirical representation of modern youth, delves into the reality of evolving technology and darkens the lines that separate Isolation is a theme that the text subtly presents through the use of first person point of view. The author conveys the protagonist’s views on his friends and the world around him as disconnected and disinteresting, *QUOTE*, he is often left questioning many aspects of his social relationships. “I get lonely at party’s, but its worse when I leave. The feed tells me this is the music you heard, this is the music you missed”. This highlights the ‘mental invasion’ of technology as it examines and probes his insecurities. The use of 1st POV helps to add a degree of psychological depth to the story’s robotic atmosphere, which helps to reinforce the ideas of isolation and disconnection as well as Titus’s mental anguish. ‘Feed’ also explores ‘trans-humanism’ and the over-reliance that society has on modern technology. These ideas illustrate the negative affects of evolving technologically on a societal level.The author conveys over-dependence on technology leads to the deterioration...
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...Aliasgar Hussain Ms. Pugliese ENG4U 27/05/2016 Midnight’s Children – Parable of a Nation Salman Rushdie’s post-colonial dictation of historical fiction is enriched by thematic adaptations of magical realism, metaphysics, and a miraculous perception to refract India’s struggle as truly a birth which establishes a shift in age. Rushdie’s satirical literary approach is stylistically equivalent to Voltaire’s Candide, and Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, but it implements particular abstract concepts through an allegorical structure. By using a diverse variety of characters, Rushdie is able to feature ciphers or metaphors for qualities, sins, behaviors, and specifically historical events which are materialised through character actions, appearances, and speech. The synchronized birth of Saleem Sinai and the nation of India, sets off a relation between the two, as the events that proceed are concurrent to both. Saleem’s encounters are magnified at a larger scale to re-enact post-colonial Indian history. Rushdie's allegory is not of the country as that might be imagined to subsist beyond the world of texts, but of the nation as already mediated by the pretext of national history. This is Indian history in its canonical form. Significant Indian historical events which shaped the nation’s cultural, political, and social position are all materialised, such as the violent process of secularization/partition, India’s genealogy, and the national emergency of 1975. To clearly...
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...Realism in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Churchill’s Top Girls Nineteen-century Europe held rigid conventionalisms of class division, social order and gender roles. Society hid behind the mask of hypocrisy in an attempt to preserve bourgeoisie’s position of power. In that concern, conceptions of ‘liberty of the spirit’[1] and ‘liberty of thought and of the human condition’[2] came to question. Thus, Henrik Ibsen drew attention to the threat to ideas of freedom and public opinion by giving life to A Doll’s House (1879). He aimed to critique constraints of Victorian society rather than vindicating the rights of women. In that sense, in a speech given in his honour by the Norwegian Women’s Rights League on 26 May 1898 he stresses: ‘Whatever I have written has been without any conscious thought of making propaganda. […] To me it has seemed a problem of humanity in general.’[3] Ibsen clearly states he strove to expose the manipulation of individuals’ liberties as he worked for the human cause. In Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982) the aim of the play is to reveal how the fulfilment of women’s self-realization needs in the personal and social spheres is achieved by compromising humanity and morality. In the end, what ‘The New Woman’ gets is disillusionment and loneliness as she finds herself in a predicament: mother or career woman, sensitive or hardened. In Top Girls what is represented is the price women pay to go up the corporate ladder in a male-dominant world. Thus, I will...
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...over a decade of Russian history. Under Stalin, the campaign to crush opposition began almost instantaneously. Initially, this came in the form of political opponents such as Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamanev and the left. Beginning with Trotsky, Stalin seized opportunity and dominated the 12th Party Conference in 1923, after Trotsky failed to capitalise on the chance to make the principal speech, which would arguably have enabled him to emerge as the next leader of Russia. Fraught with half truths and lies was Stalin’s speech, which diminished the position of Trotsky and subsequently enhanced his own profile. A fathom of mistakes from Trotsky would follow, including accusations of factionalism, absence in various Central Committee meetings and missing Lenin’s funeral, all provided Stalin to emerge as the loyal discipline of Lenin. Subsequently, a vicious campaign from Zinoviev and Kamanev was launched against Trotsky, questioning his loyalty and raising the issue of his opposition towards Lenin prior to 1917. In response, Trotsky published ‘The Lessons of October’ in which he attacked Zinoviev and Kamanev, branding them as the instigators, belittling any responsibility from Stalin, which in hindsight was a huge mistake. Stalin merely sat back and watched the political left tear themselves apart, whilst subtly consolidation power by bringing more of his supporters to key positions in party organisation. Trotsky was further condemned by the Central Committee in January 1925, which...
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...CHAPTER I THE RESEARCH PROBLEM A. Research Background At home, house rules are set. Inside an educational institution, general directions are laid down. In offices, company policies are implemented. Indeed, regulations and set of laws are everywhere. Whoever professional individual, may he be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, an accountant, a journalist and so on, conformity with moral standards is expected. In whatever profession, may it be in law, medicine, engineering, business, mass media and so on, compliance with the principles of professional conduct is needed. At wherever workplace, may it be in the court, hospital, construction site, bank, and so on, observance of the rules is required. Every professional men and women has to abide by certain rules and regulations. Practitioners of mass communication is no exception. The individuals working under this profession have to observe and follow the law and ethics of mass communication. These are not just standards of what is right and wrong nor based only on morality, as what most people think so. There is more to ethics than their misconceptions. These standards of conduct are highly essential and therefore strict adherence is recommended. These ethics drive the practitioners to instill self-discipline, professional attitude and sense of responsibility among 1 themselves as they are guided on how to deal with day-to-day situations involving ethical dilemmas. Here in the Philippines, there have been a lot of reported...
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...theatrical spectacle. The use of plastics, steel, aluminum, advanced lighting control, and sound recording equipment drastically changed the face of theatre production and quality. This is also a period of open experimentation both in design and production and has resulted in the development of the minimalistic and fractured realism styles. Minimalism is a style, which reduces the design elements to the least number necessary to produce the production. Fractured realism uses limited realistic elements separated in a fractured nature. Furthermore, a division of the theatre workforce into separate specialized artisans increases both operational efficiency and overall quality. The development of the technical director to oversee the production elements further organizes the modern theater. However, this specialization requires a great amount of trust and collaboration between the director and other artists on the production team. The advent of director/designer teams like Eli Kazan and Jo Melziner are in response to this emerging need for collaboration. Historical Background Obviously, the anti-realism movement is a reaction to the realism movement. However, this was more than a knee jerk reaction to the scientific examination of human relationships to society, culture, and politic. It was a...
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...were spent in preparation for entrance to Christiania University. About 1851 Ibsen was given the position of "theater poet" at the newly built National Theater in Bergen, a post which he held for six years. In 1857 he became director of the Norwegian Theater in Christiania; In 1858, he published his first play, The Vikings at Helgeland, Brand and Peer Gynt which were long, historical verse plays. And in 1862, with Love's Comedy, became known in his own country as a playwright of promise. Seven years later, in the starting of 1869, he began to write prose plays, giving up the verse form. Some critics characterize this switch as an abandonment of poetry in favor of realism. In the same year, discouraged with the reception given to his work and out of sympathy with the social and intellectual ideals of his country, he left Norway, not to return for a period of nearly thirty years. He established himself first at Rome, later in Munich. In 1877, Ibsen began what would become a series of five plays in which he examines the moral faults of modern society. The group includes A Doll's House, The Wild Duck, and Ghosts. Late in life he returned to Christiania, where he died May 23, 1906. . IN the entire history of literature, there are few figures like Ibsen. Practically his whole life and energies were devoted to the theater; and his offerings, medicinal and bitter, have changed the history of the stage. Until the latter part of...
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...International Security Lecture 1 March 30th, 2015 The politics of security knowledge What is international security? We could start thinking about the security council of the UN But also about the invasion of Afghanistan (chapter 7 UN in order to secure the international security) We can also think about security in terms of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This was a unilateral act of war, but sure it can also mean other things We can think of the national security agency, the agency in charge of spying all the signals and communications to a certain extent. What’s interesting about the NSA, it is seen as a threat to the security of the privacy. Lately, with the reports of the UN development programme, we start talking about HUMAN security (not military security, but rather the security of individuals, having a livelihood that’s acceptable). Whether security is international or not, it can be a rather confusing word The protection of values we hold dear. We search for it, we pursue it, we achieve it, we deny it to others. * what is to be secured? Is it the security of states? Or individuals? * What is the actual threat that we’re facing? Primarily to be dealing with military threats, or are there other types of threats we are facing. Essentially contested concept A concept that ‘inevitably’ involves endless disputes about their proper uses on the part of their users – Walter Gallie There can be ambiguity (one persons freedom-fighter is the other’s...
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...On-line Resources Welcome to Part 1 of TAG’s on-line resources for our production of The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter. These resources are divided into 2 parts. Part 1 is intended to give an insight into Pinter, his style of writing and the play itself by looking at previous productions of The Birthday Party. Generally aimed at Higher Drama students, this pack complements units 1, 2 and 3 of the syllabus. However, these resources are also useful for the Knowledge and Understanding elements of Standard Grade as well as the Special Study for Advanced Higher Drama. I have collated information from various sources in order to provide material for use before your students see TAG’s production. In September 2003, Part 2 will be available to download from TAG’s website. This section of the resources will focus on the process of creating our production of The Birthday Party. It will include contributions from the Director, the Designer, the Performers and other members of the creative team. I hope that Part 2 will open up TAG’s working methods and provide a real insight into how a theatre company works. Please feel free to reproduce any section of the on-line resources for your use in the classroom. We are always aiming to provide the most effective and beneficial resources for teachers and so please do offer any comments you have regarding either part of this pack. We welcome and appreciate all feedback. I very much hope that you and your pupils find the resources useful and enjoy...
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...1. Literature of the 17th century. John Milton. “Paradise Lost”. John Bunyan. “Pilgrim’s Progress”. The peculiarities of the English literature of the 17th century are determined by the events of the Engl. Bourgeois Revolution, which took place in 1640-60. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649& General Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the new government. In 1660, shortly after Cro-ll’s death, the dynasty of the Stuarts was restored. The establishment of new social&eco-ic relations, the change from feudal to bourgeois ownership, escalating class-struggle, liberation movement and contradictions of the bourgeois society found their reflection in lit-re. The main representatives of this period is: John Milton: was born in London&educated at Christ’s College. He lived a pure life believing that he had a great purpose to complete. At college he was known as the The Lady of Christ’s. he Got master’s degree at Cambridge. It’s convenient to consider his works in 3 divisions. At first he wrote his short poems at Horton. (The Passion, Song on May Morning, L’Allegro). Then he wrote mainly prose. His 3 greatest poems belong to his last group. At the age of 23 he had still done little in life&he admits this in one of his sonnets. (On his 23d B-day) In his another sonnet he wrote on his own blindness. (On his Blindness) Milton wrote diff. kinds of works. His prose works were mainly concerned with church, affairs, divorce & freedom. The English civil war between Charles...
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