The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1739  Thursday, 13 October 2005

From: 		Lisa, Hsiutien Shen <
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Date: 		Thursday, 13 Oct 2005 03:54:26 +0800
Subject: 	Questions on Festivity, esp. on Twelfth Night!

I am not an English native speaker, and I apologize if my questions' 
shallow or stupid.

These days I am stuck in some questions while reading for an important 
essay.  The following are my recent readings on the topic:

Barber, C. L. Shakespeare's Festive Comedy-A Study of Dramatic Form and 
Its Relation to Social Custom. New York: Princeton UP, 1959.

Bristol, Michael D. Carnival and Theater: Plebeian Culture and the 
Structure of Athority in Renaissance England. London: Loutledge, 1989.

Mangan, Michael. A Preface to Shakespeare's Comedies: 1594-1603. New 
York: Longman, 1996.

I am interested in the comic elements or strategies in Shakespeare's 
comedies, especially the developed comedies like Twelfth Night.  After 
all, why are they laughable?  I found the festival originality in 
Shakespeare's comedies, and wondered if this festivity has something to 
do with Carnival (Bakhtin's idea).  I wondered how the two (festivity & 
carnival) correlated?  The above books make me confused with their 
critical stance, Shakespeare's comedy is subversive or not?  And dose my 
inferring make any sense?

Thank you for any replies.

Lisa Shen

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