Title: Time out of joint – as usual reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead as a Saturnalian play
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2015, vol. 20, iss. 1, pp. [103]-119
Extent
[103]-119
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/133969
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
In this paper, I re-read Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead as a text indebted to ancient comedy, with special attention to possible Plautine elements. As its very title suggests, the most obvious intermediary between Stoppard and Plautus is Hamlet, but Shakespeare's text is not necessarily the only feasible route to understanding Stoppard's comic art. I argue that Stoppard's text, like Shakespeare's comedies, borrows from the ancient tradition of festive comedy, and that one of his most important achievements is the reintegration of the whole spectrum of Classical drama into the framework of a postwar absurdist play. This is what I wish to demonstrate by cataloguing motifs that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern shares with the comedies of Plautus. The main points I raise are the Saturnalian time management of Stoppard's play; its likewise Saturnalian protagonists; the parallel behaviour of these texts towards their generic and intertextual frames and their strong meta-dramatic nature; some shared cultural, social, and philosophical themes; and, finally, despite their focus on low-prestige, unheroic characters, the tragic qualities that they likewise share.
References
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[2] Delaney, P. (2001). Chronology. In The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. (1–9). ed. Kelly, K. E. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Delaney, P. (2001). Exit Tomáš Straüssler, Enter Sir Tom Stoppard. In The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard (25–37). ed. Kelly, K. E. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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[7] Marshall, C. W. (2006). The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8] Nyusztay, I. (2010). Az önazonosság alakváltozatai az abszurd drámában. Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter és Tom Stoppard. Budapest: L'Harmattan.
[9] Parker, H. (2001). Crucially Funny, or Tranio on the Couch: The Servus Callidus and Jokes About Torture. In Segal, E. (Ed.). Oxford Readings in Menander, Plautus, and Terence. (127–137). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[10] RE = Brill's New Pauly Online,. Cancik, Hubert – Schneider, Helmuth – Landfester, Manfred, (Eds.). English edition. Salazar, C. F. – Gentry, F. G. (Eds.). http://referenceworks. brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-pauly (last accessed: 02-04-2015)
[11] Sales, R. (1988) Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Penguin Critical Studies. London: Penguin.
[12] Segal, E. (1987). Roman Laughter. The comedy of Plautus. (first edition: 1968). New York – Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[13] Segal, E. (2001). The Menaechmi: Roman Comedy of Errors. In Segal, E. (Ed.). Oxford Readings in Menander, Plautus, and Terence. (115–126). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[14] Slater, N. W. (1985). Plautus in Performance. The Theatre of the Mind. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
[15] Stoppard, Tom (1998). Dogg's Hamlet. In The Real Inspector Hound And Other Plays. New York: Grove Press.
[16] Stoppard, Tom (2000). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. (first edition 1967).London: Faber and Faber.
[17] Stoppard, Tom (1982). Travesties. (first edition 1975). London: Faber and Faber
[18] Sumi, G., S (2002). Impersonating The Dead: Mimes at Roman Funerals. American Journal of Philology, 123, 4, 559-585. | DOI 10.1353/ajp.2003.0013
[19] Zinman, T. (2001). Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing. In Kelly, K. E. (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. (120–135). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[20] The interview from The Guardian (2008); last accessed19-02-2015): http:www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/sep/06/stoppard.theatre
[2] Delaney, P. (2001). Chronology. In The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. (1–9). ed. Kelly, K. E. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Delaney, P. (2001). Exit Tomáš Straüssler, Enter Sir Tom Stoppard. In The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard (25–37). ed. Kelly, K. E. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4] Dér, K. (1989). Plautus világa. Budapest: Európa.
[5] Fleming, J. P. (2001). Stoppard's Theatre. Finding Order amid Chaos. Austin: University of Texas Press.
[6] Fraenkel, E. (2007). Plautine Elements in Plautus. trans. Drevikovsky, T. and Muecke, F. Oxford: Oxford University Press (original: Plautinisches bei Plautus. Berlin, 1922).
[7] Marshall, C. W. (2006). The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8] Nyusztay, I. (2010). Az önazonosság alakváltozatai az abszurd drámában. Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter és Tom Stoppard. Budapest: L'Harmattan.
[9] Parker, H. (2001). Crucially Funny, or Tranio on the Couch: The Servus Callidus and Jokes About Torture. In Segal, E. (Ed.). Oxford Readings in Menander, Plautus, and Terence. (127–137). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[10] RE = Brill's New Pauly Online,. Cancik, Hubert – Schneider, Helmuth – Landfester, Manfred, (Eds.). English edition. Salazar, C. F. – Gentry, F. G. (Eds.). http://referenceworks. brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-pauly (last accessed: 02-04-2015)
[11] Sales, R. (1988) Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Penguin Critical Studies. London: Penguin.
[12] Segal, E. (1987). Roman Laughter. The comedy of Plautus. (first edition: 1968). New York – Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[13] Segal, E. (2001). The Menaechmi: Roman Comedy of Errors. In Segal, E. (Ed.). Oxford Readings in Menander, Plautus, and Terence. (115–126). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[14] Slater, N. W. (1985). Plautus in Performance. The Theatre of the Mind. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
[15] Stoppard, Tom (1998). Dogg's Hamlet. In The Real Inspector Hound And Other Plays. New York: Grove Press.
[16] Stoppard, Tom (2000). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. (first edition 1967).London: Faber and Faber.
[17] Stoppard, Tom (1982). Travesties. (first edition 1975). London: Faber and Faber
[18] Sumi, G., S (2002). Impersonating The Dead: Mimes at Roman Funerals. American Journal of Philology, 123, 4, 559-585. | DOI 10.1353/ajp.2003.0013
[19] Zinman, T. (2001). Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing. In Kelly, K. E. (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. (120–135). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[20] The interview from The Guardian (2008); last accessed19-02-2015): http:www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/sep/06/stoppard.theatre