A Study of the Metaphor of the World as Theater in Shakespeare and Calderon

FAIN: FB-12396-75

Stephen H. Lipmann
Hamilton College (Clinton, NY 13323-1295)

A study of the metaphor of the world as theater in Shakespeare and Calderon. Major objectives are to reach a better understanding of how metaphysical drama developed in the theaters of Spain and England during the 17th century and to show that these theaters share significant common ground; to examine critically the idea that perspectivist drama in the later Renaissance has affinities with ritual, in particular by defining differences between ritual, play and aesthetic experience, especially the aesthetic response to religious drama; and to distinguish clearly the "modern" aspects of perspectivist drama by considering it in light of Romantic literary theory and aesthetics, Result will be an article on Romantic theory and Renaissance drama.