'Our eyes are sentinels unto our judgments': Embodied Perception in The Changeling
| Autor: | M. Burdick Smith |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Changeling
Literature and Literary Theory media_common.quotation_subject 06 humanities and the arts Representation (arts) Art 060202 literary studies Presentational and representational acting 060104 history Aesthetics Perception 0602 languages and literature 0601 history and archaeology Embodied perception Period (music) media_common |
| Zdroj: | Ben Jonson Journal. 28:66-87 |
| ISSN: | 1755-165X 1079-3453 |
| DOI: | 10.3366/bjj.2021.0300 |
| Popis: | This essay argues that Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling (1622) draws on debates about sense perception in the period to interrogate the effects of dramatic representation. After a brief overview of early modern perceptual theory, this essay demonstrates that the play's villain, De Flores, manipulates other characters’ perception through language. In fact, De Flores uses theatrical language to manipulate how other characters perceive their environment, indicating the theater's ability to manipulate audiences. By affecting how characters perceive, De Flores affects other characters’ ability to process and react to their environment, which impedes their judgment. The essay argues that much of The Changeling's dramatic action unfolds through a conflict between two models of perception—presentational and representational—that undergird much of the play's dramatic conflict. In the play, pervasive anxiety about judgment, particularly how perception affects judgment, is structured around the distinction between these two models of perception. Considering the play alongside representational and presentational models indicates how early modern dramatists engage with intellectual theories to consider how representation works and how spaces are experienced. In this way, the theater refracts and dramatizes theories about perception. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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