Death on the Stage, Death of the Stage

As Frank Whigham puts it, most readings of The Duchess of Malfi apply two categories of analysis: psychological inquiry ... and moral evaluation.2 Whigham asks prior questions--why are these characters here at all?--in an effort to understand the play in terms of its historical social context. By asking a prior question of another sort--why does this play represent theatricality the way it does?-we can better understand the play both in terms of its historical context and its internal workings. We will find that The Duchess of Malfi is preoccupied not only with reality and illusion and the effects of observation, but also with a growing sense of the theatrical nature of personal identity and the difficulty of locating a meaningful action which can be represented on stage.3 We will see that ultimately the play can only confusedly point beyond itself, toward a new, textually oriented middle-class culture which will, for a time at least, prohibit theatrical display altogether

Art · Biology · Stage (stratigraphy · Theatre and Performance Studies · Paleontology