The experiential significance of landscape in the Shakespearean imagination
Date
2018-07-06
Authors
Chamberlain, Paul Geoffrey
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Abstract
The application of literature to geographical research has been a matter of interest
to scholars since antiquity but, apart from several normative statements on this subject in the
past, literary geography has not been a serious focus of geographical inquiry until relatively
recently. Since the early 1970s, however, humanistic geographers have been probing
literature assiduously not simply for its geographical content, but for the subtle clues that it
provides in helping us to better understand the mundane, contradictory and transcendental
experiences of human beings in relation to their environment. It is upon the latter that this
research focuses. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiential
significance of landscape in the Shakespearean imagination in the belief that by doing so we
can not only shed new light on the perceptions, attitudes and values of the culture in which
it was written, but also improve our own understanding of the world in which we live.
Although an enormous amount of research has been undertaken on William
Shakespeare, litterateurs have tended to ignore many aspects of the playwright’s work that
are so important to geography. In focusing upon Shakespeare’s dramatic landscape, I have
attempted to fill this gap.
First, I identify a wide variety of elements of the landscape according to their frequency of occurrence; then, through the application of phenomenology and hermeneutics, I have endeavoured to disclose the meaning of these elements as they are portrayed in the text; the application of polarity, ambiguity and antinomy, as well as the literary devices of symbolism, simile and metaphor have been used to enrich the discourse. My method of inquiry is superimposed upon a conceptual framework in which I first examine the landscape from the macroscale, focusing upon the cosmic landscape of Elizabethan cosmology, terrestrial space and the stage; then I approach the landscape from the mesoscale, by exploring the regional landscape of the city, the middle landscape and the wilderness; finally, I concentrate upon specific landscape elements within the regional landscape, by classifying them into either a territorial core, interactional space or public space. The study ends by identifying some important concepts from within the research framework and I elaborate upon these in an attempt to disclose more fully the experiential significance of landscape in the Shakespearean imagination.
One of the most important concepts identified in this study is the pervasive use of the body-landscape metaphor. However, the landscape:body metaphor is far more prevalent in Shakespeare's work, because the body:landscape metaphor did not become more widely adopted until much later in history. Nevertheless, Elizabethan cosmology is clearly reflected in the spatial representation of the landscape: the city is a symbol of order and a metaphor for paradise; the wilderness is a symbol of chaos and a metaphor for hell; and the middle landscape mediates between this antinomy. But there are some anomalies. The centre of the landscape periodically erupts in chaos, and the periphery harbours enclaves of order that are sometimes portrayed as utopias. In addition, even though the centre of the landscape is overwhelmingly portrayed as sacred--in contrast to the periphery, which is profane--in practice the antinomy of sacred and profane space is misleading, because the Elizabethans' whole life was encapsulated in an eschatological doctrine in which the entire world was sacred. Furthermore, the complexity of the Shakespearean landscape is displayed in a variety of responses to the human involvement with the environment that can best be understood when placed upon an insider-outsider continuum. Perhaps most significant of all, however, is the role of the stage. The symbolic representation of heaven and hell in the theatre not only allows the vertical metaphorical landscape of Elizabethan cosmology to interact with horizontal terrestrial space in ways that profoundly transform the landscape; there is strong evidence that this allowed the Elizabethan audience to view the theatre as a metaphor for life through a 'suspension of disbelief', giving them a sense of identity, purpose and meaning in a way that modern drama, and even cinematography, has found virtually impossible to emulate.
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Keywords
Cosmology in literature, Cosmology, Medieval