REPRESENTING TURKISHNESS IN NEO-LATIN DRAMA: THE CASE OF SOLYMANNIDAE

Fatima Essadek

DOI Number
10.22190/FULL1801001E
First page
001
Last page
012

Abstract


The Elizabethan period witnessed a proliferation of Neo-Latin drama in Oxford and Cambridge universities and in the Inns of Court. Despite the sheer bulk of academic drama and its role in paving the way for the mature drama written in the vernacular, it has not yet received adequate critical attention. Consequently, this paper tries to shed some light on this neglected genre by presenting a reading of the surviving drama Solymannidae — a play which draws on the history of the Ottoman dynasty. In creating action and characters the anonymous playwright borrowed extensively from the classical dramatic conventions, but, at the same time, he was original in representing the Turkish cultural identity. The discussion unveils the drama’s pioneering role in introducing plots from Eastern history on the English stage and its contribution in formulating the dramaturgical practices to perform them. In this paper there is also an attempt to verify Solymannidae’s source. The present inquiry aims to extend our knowledge of English Neo-Latin drama which is customarily excluded from the mainstream of scholarship.

Keywords

Solymannidae, Neo-Latin Drama, Ottoman history, Seneca

Full Text:

PDF

References


Billington, S., (1978), “Sixteenth-Century Drama in St. John's College, Cambridge”, The Review of English Studies, Vol. 29 (113), pp. 1-10.

Boas, F., (1914), University Drama in the Tudor Age. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Burton, J., (2005), Traffic and Turning: Islam and English Drama, 1579-1624. Newark: U of Delaware P.

Busbecq, O. G., (1694), The Four Epistles of A. G. Busbequius Concerning his Embassy into Turkey. London.

Chew, S., (1937), The Crescent and the Rose: Islam and England During the Renaissance. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Clot, A., (2012) Suleiman the Magnificent. Trans. M. Reisz. London: Saqi Books.

Feuillerat, A. (ed.), (1914), Documents Relating to the Revels at Court in the Time of King Edward VI and Queen Mary. Louvain: A. Uystpruyst.

Georgijevic, B., (1569), The Ofspring of the House of Ottomanno. Trans. Hugh Goughe. London.

Hakluyt, R., (1903), The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Glasgow: MacLehose.

Hall, E., (1809), Hall’s Chronicle: Containing the History of England During the Reign of Henry the Fourth, and the Succeeding Monarchs, to the End of the Reign of Henry the Eighth. London.

Harrison, W., (1994), The Description of England: The Classic Contemporary Account of Tudor Social Life, ed. Georges Edelen. New York: Dover.

Marlowe, Christopher, (2014), Tamburlaine: Parts One and Two, ed. Anthony Dawson. London: Bloomsbury.

McJannet, L., (2006), The Sultan Speaks: Dialogues in English Plays and Histories about the Ottoman Turks. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nelson, A., (1989), Records of Early English Drama, Cambridge 2. Toronto: U of Toronto P.

Norland, H., (2013), “Neo-Latin Drama in Britain”, In Norland, Howard and Bloemendal, Jan (eds.), Neo-Latin Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe, pp. 471-544.

Robertson, R., (1969), “Oxford Theatre in Tudor Times”, Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 21 (1), pp. 41-50.

Seneca, (1917), Agamemnon, Theoi E-Texts Library. Trans. F. J. Miller. Accessed 14 December 2017, http://www.theoi.com.

Seneca, (1898), Two Tragedies of Seneca: Medea and the Daughters of Troy. Trans. Ella Isabel Harris. Cambridge: The Riverside Press.

Smith, M., (1923), College Plays Performed in the University of Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Solymannidae (2007), The Philological Museum. Trans. and ed. D. F. Sutton. Accessed 7 Feb 2018, www.philological.bham.ac.uk/soly/.

Wiggins, M and Richardson, Catherine (2013) British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, Volume III: 1590-1597, Oxford: Oxford U. P.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.22190/FULL1801001E

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


ISSN 0354-4702 (Print)

ISSN 2406-0518 (Online)