外国文学研究 ›› 2022, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (2): 120-134.

• 戏剧研究 • 上一篇    下一篇

“台上仅见理查”——18、19世纪美国舞台上的《理查三世》

陈星   

  • 出版日期:2022-04-25 发布日期:2022-04-29
  • 作者简介:陈星,南京大学外国语学院英语系副教授,主要从事英国文艺复兴文学研究,特别是莎士比亚研究。

“Richard, Solus”: Richard III on the American Stage in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Chen Xing   

  • Online:2022-04-25 Published:2022-04-29
  • About author:Chen Xing is an associate professor at the English Department, School of Foreign Studies, Nanjing University (Nanjing 210023, China), specializing in the study of English Renaissance literature, especially Shakespearean drama. Email: cxchenxing@nju.edu.cn

内容摘要: 《理查三世》是18、19世纪美国舞台上最走红的一部莎剧。学界对其中原因的探索多以莎士比亚原著为研究文本,忽视了当时美国舞台上演出的并非莎本,而是科利·西伯于17世纪末推出的改编本。西伯本摒弃了莎本的历史主题,将理查变成剧中绝对中心,从而把历史剧换成了个人悲剧。这样的改写虽并非针对美国舞台所作,却恰好迎合了美国人价值观中的个人主义精神,并与18、19世纪美国剧场的运作模式以及当时观众审美情趣合拍,因此风靡一时。西伯的改编虽自身文学价值有限,但其在美国的流行给当代读者提供了一个探索早期现代文学文本生产与传播过程中意图增殖机制的机会,因此仍值得研究。

关键词: 《理查三世》, 西伯, 改编, 美国, 意图

Abstract: Richard III was the most popular Shakespearean play on the American stage in the 18th and 19th centuries. So far, scholarship on this popularity has been mostly centered around the original play by Shakespeare, overlooking the fact that the stage performance at that time was actually based on a script adapted by Colley Cibber in the late 17th century. By removing the historical theme from Shakespeare's play, Cibber's version places Richard at the very center of the play and converts the history play to a personal tragedy. Although Cibber had not the American stage in mind at the time of the adaptation, his Richard III nevertheless appealed to the spirit of individualism in American values, and corresponded well to the operational mode of the American stage and the aesthetic taste of its audience in the 18th and 19th centuries, making it a sensational success at the time. While Cibber's adaptation is admittedly of limited literary value in itself, it is still worth studying because its popularity in the US offers contemporary readers a chance to observe the multiplication of intentions in the production and dissemination of early modern literary texts.

Key words: Richard III, Cibber, adaptation, US, intentions

Journal Integrated Operation and Management Platform with Network