J 2023

The role of mute characters and muteness in the first English melodramas

ČOUPKOVÁ, Eva

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

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

60204 General literature studies

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14640/23:00130293

Organization unit

Language Centre

Keywords in English

muteness; melodrama; tableau; Holcroft

Tags

Reviewed
Změněno: 24/3/2024 20:24, PaedDr. Marta Holasová, Ph.D.

Abstract

V originále

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.