The forms of things unknown: navigating possibility in Shakespeare's implicit action

Thesis

This thesis interrogates questions of knowledge and possibility in Shakespeare. It does so by focusing on the ‘forms’ of the ‘things unknown’ that are not explicitly revealed within the playtexts alone, combining an interest in questions about knowability with a focus on Shakespearean dramaturgy. Adopting an approach that seeks to establish, in a way that takes criticism right back to basics, what happens during the course of a Shakespeare play and on what basis we can know, attention is paid to the instruments – or particular forms – of Shakespeare’s stagecraft, ranging from prompts, cues, entrances and exits, implied stage directions and reports. In an effort to conjecturally ‘navigate’ the various possible courses of action that a play might take, the thesis hones in on the underlying engineering of the plays in response to a series of questions that call attention to the limitations of what can be known: when is a given character present? Does an event occur, or in what way? Is a given action performed? Does a report match with what has happened? In a way that highlights both the extents and limits of the inferences that can be made from the signals that were originally directed at the players, it is argued that Shakespeare’s dramaturgy works in such a way that the action of a play hinges upon points at which various possibilities will be instantiated. Though drawing upon debates about early modern playing conditions and enhancing our understanding of Shakespeare’s stagecraft, ultimately, The Forms of Things Unknown posits a metaphysical picture of Shakespeare’s dramatic worlds that emphasises their plurality and what is ethically at stake in it.

Authors: Bradshaw, R

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-b74pkm1ek
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: prompts; William Shakespeare; David Lewis; stagecraft; epistemology; possibility; dramaturgy