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

ČOUPKOVÁ, Eva. The role of mute characters and muteness in the first English melodramas. In Hradec Králové Conference of Anglophone Studies. 2022.

Základní údaje

Originální název

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

Autoři

ČOUPKOVÁ, Eva

Vydání

Hradec Králové Conference of Anglophone Studies, 2022

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Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Prezentace na konferencích

Obor

60204 General literature studies

Stát vydavatele

Česká republika

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Organizační jednotka

Centrum jazykového vzdělávání

Klíčová slova anglicky

muteness; melodrama; tableau; Holcroft

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Anotace

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 the 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. In my paper, I will discuss 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, I will analyse the first English melodrama and show how the different manifestation of muteness in the form of postures, gestures, silent tableaux and music intensified the theatrical appeal of the play. Finally, I will argue that the legacy of the first melodrama reverberated in the English theatre of the nineteenth century and the first silent films, illustrating this by the example of the first adaptation of Frankenstein with its mute Creature.