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    Ways of seeing on the Renaissance Stage: speculating on invisibility

    Woods, Gillian (2019) Ways of seeing on the Renaissance Stage: speculating on invisibility. Renaissance Drama 47 (2), pp. 125-151. ISSN 0486-3739.

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    Abstract

    Invisible characters appear – and disappear – across Renaissance drama. During an era when vision was exposed as unreliable in various cultural discourses, invisible characters offer insights into how theatrical viewing worked. Surveying a range of plays, this article explores the elasticity of representational tricks, which allow viewers to see and not see at the same time. Positioned on the central crux of the theatrical illusion, the visible actor/invisible character pinpoints the interplay between belief and disbelief, and exposes the mechanics of visual interpretation. As moments which foreground the constructed nature of vision, invisible characters also help to reveal the ideological perspectives demanded by plays.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Depositing User: Gillian Woods
    Date Deposited: 13 May 2019 07:11
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:46
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27407

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