• The ‘Gothic’ in Hamlet: The Role of the Macabre in Creating Cathartic Horror.

    Author(s):
    Murat Öğütcü (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    CLCS Renaissance and Early Modern, GS Drama and Performance, LLC Shakespeare
    Subject(s):
    Drama, European drama--Renaissance, Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616, Theater, History
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Gothic, Hamlet, Reception studies, Renaissance theater, Shakespeare, Theatre and history
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M69B8D
    Abstract:
    Building on Elizabethan dramatic conventions and religious debates about ghosts, Hamlet employs linguistic and dramatic means to chill its audience. Audio-visual means, along with the manner of entrances and exits, are used in order to horrify the audience. These create a fluctuation between belief and disbelief towards the macabre elements in the play, which only heightens the fear in the audience. Thus, through these elements, gothic catharsis is achieved, which creates cathartic horror that generates fear in the audience. The overall sensory experience in the Early Modern amphitheatre in which the play was enacted had a great effect in achieving this form of catharsis. Therefore, this article aims to illustrate how Elizabethan playhouse experience affected audience reaction towards macabre elements in Hamlet in order to trigger gothic catharsis.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1501/Dtcfder_0000001507
    Publisher:
    Ankara University
    Pub. Date:
    2017
    Journal:
    DTCF Journal
    Volume:
    57
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    138 - 156
    ISSN:
    2459-0150
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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