ČOUPKOVÁ, Eva. The role of mute characters and muteness in the first English melodramas. Hradec Králové Journal of Anglophone Studies. 2023, vol. 2022, 1-2, p. 81-89. ISSN 2336-3347.
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Basic information
Original name The role of mute characters and muteness in the first English melodramas
Authors ČOUPKOVÁ, Eva (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
Edition Hradec Králové Journal of Anglophone Studies, 2023, 2336-3347.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Field of Study 60204 General literature studies
Country of publisher Czech Republic
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW Odkaz na číslo časopisu
RIV identification code RIV/00216224:14640/23:00130293
Organization unit Language Centre
Keywords in English muteness; melodrama; tableau; Holcroft
Tags Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: PaedDr. Marta Holasová, Ph.D., učo 38218. Changed: 24/3/2024 20:24.
Abstract
Abstract: The form of melodrama arrived in England from France at the beginning of the nineteenth century and soon became a well-established and popular genre among many strata of society. Originally a working-class entertainment, it flourished within the aesthetic limits of the Licensing Act with its emphasis on music, pantomime and gesture, rather that the spoken word. The form was inaugurated in England by Thomas Holcroft who adapted René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt’s melodrama Coelina; ou, l'enfant du mystère as A Tale of Mystery in 1802. In this play, following the example of Pixérécourt, Holcroft introduced the mute character Francisco, whose tragic fate and visual means of communication excited a strong emotional response from the audience. The paper discusses the historical and social conditions that enabled the spread and vogue for the genre, and reasons why muteness became a language of the stage. Then, it analyses the first English melodrama and shows how the different manifestation of muteness in the form of postures, gestures, silent tableaux and music intensified the theatrical appeal of the play. Finally, it is argued that the legacy of the first melodrama reverberated in the English theatre of the nineteenth century and the first silent films, which is illustrated by the example of the first adaptation of Frankenstein with its mute Creature.
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