Configuration and representation of space in William Shakespeare’s the tempest
Keywords:
Shakespeare, The Tempest, Space, Conditions of Representation, Fluid and Empty StageAbstract
In his profession of playwright, William Shakespeare frequently worked with the notion of space, but how did he manage to configure and represent it on the empty stage of the Globe theatre, at court, or at the Blackfriars private playhouse? How did he create that sense of space and place in a script with very few stage directions? Taking The Tempest as a case study, I will analyze the way in which Shakespeare communicates the sense of space onstage and throughout the script, to argue that his configuration does not only obey to the dramatic conventions of the Elizabethan era, but to the use of visual and sensory language set in motion by the actors, and the conditions of representation of the London theatres; specifically, to the performativity and flexibility of the empty space.
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