The experience of a glove dealer's son becoming a royal darling has now become an inspirational story. Tan Zheng, a professor of English at Fudan University, said that Shakespeare was born at the right time, and when he arrived in London, it happened to be the time when British drama flourished, which was the golden age of English drama. "
Before him, there was no special venue for theatrical performances, and they could only be performed in the halls of nobles' homes or in the yards of hotels. 1567, when Shakespeare was three years old, the first professional theater named Red Lion appeared in England. Since then, various theaters have sprung up along the Thames. "
American scholar george steiner wrote a long article 400 years of Shakespeare 50 years ago. "From 1580 to 1640, the power of emotion and wisdom magically gathered in Britain. With the decline of the feudal system, a new commercial society and centralization have quietly emerged, but the ancient medieval emotional model, the habit of images and metaphors, and the profound and complicated thoughts of dissecting the world are still fresh. "
Shakespeare is lucky to live between two worlds and two kinds of consciousness. After 1640, the achievements of Bacon, Descartes and Newton made the old order gone forever.
George steiner's other point of view is that in Shakespeare's time, England had high-level theaters and audiences. The elderly Queen Elizabeth is a theater lover. According to Tan Zheng, 1594, Elizabeth's court ministers formed the "court ministers' troupe". At that time, Shakespeare became the playwright of this troupe. He is also an actor and a shareholder. The troupe also performs for ordinary audiences.
During Elizabeth's life, the "Palace Minister Troupe" performed for the Queen 32 times. After the death of Elizabeth I, James I acceded to the throne. He preferred drama to Queen Elizabeth, so shortly after he acceded to the throne, he reorganized the "Palace Minister Troupe" into the "King Sacrifice Troupe".
Twenty thousand words show the Elizabethan era.
More importantly, English is a language. George steiner observed that1English in the late 6th century and17th century also achieved a unique fusion of inheritance and innovation. 1066, the Duke of Normandy crossed the English Channel, conquered Britain and became the king of England. Tan Zheng said: "During this period, the king, his royal family and the nobles below all spoke French.
English at this stage is called Middle English, that is, English used from 1 100 to 1500. About 1500, Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales. From 1500 to the present, including Shakespeare's works, all belong to the category of modern English, so Shakespeare writes in modern English. "
George steiner believes that "the King James version of the Bible represents the consciousness of the ancient tradition in the Elizabethan era and James I era, and at the same time, it also shows the determination to enrich this tradition. By introducing classical resources and European resources, it is flexible. It is these resources that have flooded into Elizabethan English vocabulary, greatly enriching the expressive power of English. "
Steiner said that the 20,000 words used by Shakespeare vividly show the Elizabethan world, and there is almost no room for action and thinking, and there is almost nothing too far away or difficult to use for specific drama themes. "Shakespeare used language to the extreme, surpassing any literati we have recorded."
Wittgenstein said: "Dreams may be wrong, absurd and messy, but at the same time they are absolutely correct. If Shakespeare is great, then his greatness can only be shown through all his plays, because they created their own language and world. In other words, Shakespeare is completely unrealistic (like a dream). "
Shakespeare's plays are mainly based on country entertainment, traditional festivals and popular culture. He only draws contradictory ideas from various texts and folk materials, which makes his works stand different analysis and provide different interpretations. Shakespeare fully demonstrated and waved contradictory thoughts.
All the contents of social life were displayed in different categories according to people's expectation and understanding at that time, and were portrayed or labeled. The queen is on the throne, the pagan is on the gallows, the priest is in front of the pulpit, and the cunning Jew is ... They are integrated with the colorful social reality, so that Shakespeare's plays can only be a dream.
3. Always refuse to give a clear conclusion.
Shakespeare's plays, 400 years ago, maybe you could afford them for a penny. They were staged at the Globe Theatre. George steiner said: "At that time, in addition to the extremely poor people, whether they were aristocrats or businessmen, squires or apprentices, lawyers or mercenaries, they could often spend a penny standing in the back row of the Globe Theatre to watch the play."
However, if we think about Shakespeare from Wittgenstein's perspective, we will find that Shakespeare's plays are far from entertainment for inferior people, let alone pure education and royal propaganda. Germaine Greer, an Australian writer, said in Shakespeare the Thinker: "The greatness of Shakespeare is that he always refuses to give us a clear and direct conclusion."
Therefore, it can be found through dramatic actors and audiences, through Hollywood dreams, and even let Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth finish their unfinished words in modern cities.
In recent years, the film and television circles are more interested in Macbeth than Hamlet, perhaps because people in this era are no longer so confused about choice, but how to become a hero, so "Macbeth" has become a metaphor for modern people.
Germain Greer said: "The image of Macbeth does not belong to anyone, just like the stage of a drama, or it is like an island in the ocean where cosmic forces are intertwined, a world that we are doomed to lose unless there is God's grace."
In fact, whether Othello, Hamlet or Macbeth, these three heroes all represent the struggle for salvation of mankind. Only by communicating with Shakespeare's protagonist, can we cross the deep valley and cliff of dramatic language with Macbeth.
George steiner said, "Different eras have different views on Shakespeare, and each era will choose the most suitable thing from the compass of Shakespeare's achievements."
Shakespeare is not a moralist. The starting point of his writing is not for enlightenment, but more for entertainment. Therefore, it is only far-fetched to sum up any ethical rules from his nearly 40 plays. "Shakespeare, like his contemporaries, has a profound and keen sense of morality, and this sense of morality must always be full of vitality. No individual can grasp his whole picture. "
Germain Greer said that when critics talk endlessly about the morality and ethics in Shakespeare's plays, the truer moral education is actually the performance itself. As Wittgenstein said, "Shakespeare showed the dance of human passion. Therefore, he must be objective, otherwise Shakespeare is not showing but discussing human passion. But he is expressing it in a dance way rather than a realistic way. "
Shakespeare recounted the history of the founding of Britain with plays. It is easy for the audience to see Shakespeare's concern about the Elizabethan period at that time, but it is difficult to know his views on the politics and war of the Elizabethan period at that time.
Allan bloom, an American scholar, thinks in Shakespeare's Politics that in Shakespeare's historical plays, he tries to express a wise view, that is, what is the British regime and how can it be recognized and respected. He is successful, because the British understand their history and historical connotation according to his description.
However, Queen Elizabeth's rule was not peaceful and prosperous, with the shadow of civil war, the madness of foreign wars and the cruelty of enclosure movement. The audience watching Shakespeare's plays can also temporarily stop worrying about the worsening political and social turmoil in Elizabethan times, and Shakespeare himself did not advocate war.
Critics can criticize Shakespeare and his troupe for being attached to the royal family; Shakespeare was criticized for emphasizing the interdependence between the king and his subjects. But all these criticisms are based on the current position. Shakespeare, like Orwell who criticized him hundreds of years later, tried his best to criticize all empty and hypocritical words.
Germain Greer said, "In his drama education, he never tried to attach himself to an existing viewpoint and position. He always tries to make the audience understand all aspects behind any problem. His plays never try to exaggerate or obliterate personal feelings, but try to inspire and generate new sympathy and opinions. Shakespeare's tool for enlightening the audience is his language, especially the language used in drama performances. "
4. Film adaptation is a powerful translation form.
The question raised by Germain Greer is whether Shakespeare can be regarded as a great thinker. "Tolstoy and Orwell unanimously denied Shakespeare's status as a thinker because they could not understand the ideas expressed in a non-systematic way. Shakespeare's thought was not established by confirming Christian dogma.
His thoughts are based on values that can lead us to a just society, regardless of the existence of Christian dogma. "In Shakespeare's works, emotion has the same intelligence as thought. T.S. Eliot said that Shakespeare's thought was complete and full of pity.
Today, the entertainment industry has greatly expanded Shakespeare's readers. Professor Dai Jinhua has only one statistic about Hamlet's adaptation in her new book "Chronology of Hamlet's Shadow and Dance". "According to the statistics in the English version of Shakespeare on the Screen published by 1990, the film adaptation of Hamlet has reached 8 1 time.
1994 The English book Hamlet in Film and Television was included in the TV series, with 93 episodes in total. According to my understanding and classification, there are 47 film and television adaptations including Hamlet. Take Hamlet as the basic plot and character frame (such as The Lion King or The Banquet), Hamlet as the drama (such as Shakespeare Actor and A Midwinter Story) or form intertextual connection with Hamlet (such as The Son of Man is Dead or You Run Away from Me/Live or Destroy).
This is only the data as of 1994. Since then, nearly 10 Hamlet has been adapted, which will involve our discussion. Dai Jinhua believes that the film adaptation of famous works is the most powerful form of "translation" in the 20th century: it is not only the translation of literary language in film language, but also a device that tries to capture the wandering soul in memory with the cultural logic of different times.
The British people's feelings for Shakespeare may be incomprehensible to outsiders. As germain Greer said, "As long as Shakespeare still occupies a central position in British cultural life, this culture will retain and continue those values that make it unique: tolerance, pluralism, compromise and democratic identity."
However, Alan Bloom believes that "if we understand Shakespeare's plays one by one, he will see the result of every possible important choice in life and deeply understand the characteristics of every noble soul." This is what Ben Jonson said to Shakespeare when he was alive: He belongs to all centuries, not one era.
Extended data
At the early stage of his creation, william shakespeare was full of confidence in the future of humanistic ideals and beliefs in the real society. The theme and content of his works were active and lively, full of optimism and clarity. It laid the foundation for the gradual formation of Shakespeare's humanistic thought and dramatic artistic style.
During this period, the basic theme of his historical dramas was to support the central monarchy, condemn feudal tyrants and praise enlightened monarchs. These dramas also reflected william shakespeare's humanistic thought from both positive and negative aspects: he condemned the civil strife caused by feudal nobles' struggle for power and profit, and believed that enlightened monarchs could be produced through moral improvement, and top-down reforms could be implemented to establish harmonious social relations and ideal social systems.
At the same time, the basic themes of william shakespeare's comedies are love, marriage and friendship, which are full of lyricism and show Shakespeare's ideal of humanistic life. Shakespeare's comedies have their own characteristics in thought and art, and praise is more than ridicule in content, and of course it is more than criticism. Mainly use brushwork to depict positive images (young heroes and heroines with humanistic characteristics).
/kloc-at the beginning of the 0/7th century, in the later period of Elizabeth's rule, various signs of decline have been revealed. In william shakespeare's gradual understanding of society and life, he felt completely different from his previous ideal, and he felt that human nature was not the ideal perfection.
He is sad for the darkness and ugliness of the world, and he is sad for the absence of princes and ministers in this country; In the family, the father has no father, the son has no son, the husband and wife turn against each other, the brothers eat each other and the moral degeneration of the whole society and times. It is against this background that william shakespeare's creation turned to expose and criticize the dark phenomenon in the real society, which made his humanistic spirit and creative art gradually mature.
The tone of this stage is different from the previous stage, which is an optimistic hymn to the humanistic ideal, but it gives way to the heavy realistic description and makes the tragic drama atmosphere dignified. Most of them describe the hardships of the people's struggle, but the masters have all failed, and the dawn of victory is limited to people's morality and spirit. The tone of creation is also different from the previous period, from bright to dark, from relaxed optimism to heavy depression? [8]? .
In william shakespeare's later creation, there are some similarities between the theme and the early creation, which once again embodies the humanistic spirit of reconciliation, harmony and forgiveness.
In a word, the basic core idea of all william shakespeare's creations is humanism or humanitarianism, which is based on revealing the contradictions and conflicts between good and evil in human nature for people with different personalities, and then colliding with the bright spots of human nature in these contradictions and conflicts.