Shakespeare's accents : voicing identity in performance / Sonia Massai, King's College London.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Massai, Sonia, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Early modern, 1500-1700--Pronunciation.

English language.

English language--Early modern--Pronunciation.

English language--Social aspects.

Accents and accentuation in the theater.

Language and languages.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Language.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Physical Description:

xiv, 236 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Summary:

"Voices and accents are increasingly perceived as central markers of identity in Shakespearean performance. This book presents a history of the reception of Shakespeare on the English stage with a focus on the vocal dimensions of theatrical performance. The chapters identify key moments when English accents have caused controversy, if not public outrage. Sonia Massai examines the cultural connotations associated with different accents and how accents have catalysed concerns about national, regional and social identities that are (re)constituted in and through Shakespearean performance. She argues that theatre makers and reformers, elocutionists and historical linguists, as well as directors, actors and producers have all had a major impact on how accents have evolved and changed on the Shakespearean stage over the last four hundred years. This fascinating book offers a rich historical survey alongside close performance analysis"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. `Accents Yet Unknown': The Changing Soundscape of Shakespeare in Contemporary Performance

`Even Now with Strange and Several Noises / We Were Awaked': The Rise of Foreign and Regional Shakespeare on the English Stage

`Half to Half the World Opposed': Remapping Foreign and English Shakespeare in the Early Twenty-First Century

`A Smack of All Neighbouring Languages': Accenting Parolles in All's Well That Ends Well

`Do You Know My Voice?': Accenting Iago in Othello

2. `Lend Me Your Ears': Experiments with Original Pronunciation

3. David Garrick's `Sonic Revolution': Hegemony and Protest, 1737

1843

Enter David Garrick, `According to the Staffordshire Custom'

A Tale of Two John Palmers

`Split[ting] the Ears of the Groundlings'; Or, the Spouters' Revenge

`The Soil from which Our Garrick Came': Marked Voices and the Politics of Place

4. `Usual Speech' and `Barbarous Dialects' on the Early Modern Stage

`Sweetness of Words, Fitness of Epithets'

`Dark Words': National and Regional Phonetic Variation on the Shakespearean Stage

`Good Worts? Good Cabidge': The Butt of the Joke in The Merry Wives of Windsor

`Anger Hath a Privilege': Rusticity and Compassion in King Lear.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Massai, Sonia, Shakespeare's accents

ISBN:

9781108429627

1108429629

9781108454612

1108454615

OCLC:

1143820219