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Synecdoches and symbols : fictional performances of King Lear
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Purcell, Stephen (2016) Synecdoches and symbols : fictional performances of King Lear. Litteraria Pragensia : Studies in Literature and Culture, 26 (52). pp. 58-76. ISSN 0862-8424.
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Official URL: http://litteraria-pragensia.ff.cuni.cz/front.issue...
Abstract
A number of narratives in film, television and popular fiction feature central characters, who watch or perform in a fictional production of King Lear. Shakespeare's text itself can be represented only synecdochally in such narratives, using key scenes and speeches to represent the play as a whole: this article examines the moments that are most frequently chosen. King Lear generally functions symbolically in these narratives, echoing some of the themes of the text in which it has been embedded: these tend to include old age, parent-child relationships, memory and mental decline, human cruelty, the frailty of the human body, and the indifference or inhospitality of the natural world. Intriguingly, fictional performances of King Lear are often also catalysts for some form of reconciliation or communal renewal in their frame narratives. This article considers the fictional stagings of King Lear in Centennial (1979), The Dresser (1980, 1983, 2015), The King Is Alive (2000), Slings and Arrows (2006), A Bunch of Amateurs (2008) and Station Eleven (2014) in order to explore the ways in which film, television and popular fiction offer overlapping and contrasting distillations of the play.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > English and Comparative Literary Studies | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Litteraria Pragensia : Studies in Literature and Culture | ||||||
Publisher: | Filosofická Fakulta Karlovy University, Prague | ||||||
ISSN: | 0862-8424 | ||||||
Official Date: | December 2016 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 26 | ||||||
Number: | 52 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 58-76 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 11 April 2017 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 April 2017 | ||||||
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