The Body, Gender, and Dance within Shakespeare’s The Tempest

A PowerPoint Presentation

Created By: Rebecca Corley

Aims :Aims :To provide contextual information

on Shakespeare’s The TempestTo introduce Peter Greenaway’s

cinematic adaptation of the textTo stimulate class discussion

regarding the inclusion of The Body, Gender, and Dance within

these two works

Tentative Outline

• Introduction of topic (2 min.)• Background Information on William Shakespeare’s The

Tempest (3 min.)• Biographical Information on Peter Greenaway (6 min.)• Useful information on/ context of Prospero’s Books (3 min.)• Video clip from Prospero’s Books (6 min.)• Questions/Stimulation of Discussion on The Body and

Dance within the the two works (8 min.)• Concluding remarks (2 min.)

Some Info About the Play:• Written in 1610 or 1611• Last play completed by Shakespeare, with the

exception of Two Noble Kinsmen, which he co-authored

• The Tempest is the fourth, final, and the finest of Shakespeare's great and/or late romances

• belongs to the genre of Elizabethan romance plays, along with Pericles, Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale

• One widely held view is that the play was Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage-- that in it he indicates to his audience that he will no longer write for them and that the character of Prospero is biographical.

• “The richness of The Tempest as theater is matched by the extraordinary thematic complexity of its text . . .”

Hmmm . . .

Key Term: Tragi-comedy: a play with elements of both tragedy and comedy (i.e. a happy ending, yet suggestions of an other-than-happy ending)

Peter Greenaway

A LITTLE BIT about the Director…

• born in Newport, Wales, in 1942 • studied painting at Walthamstow College of Art • worked at the Central Office of Information for 11

years• made first short film, Train, in 1966 by filming the

last of the steam trains coming into Waterloo Station, then recasting it as a mechanical ballet with a musique concrete score.

• received enormous critical acclaim and international recognition for his first feature film The Draughtman's Contract (1982)

• has produced a wealth of short and feature-length films, but also paintings, novels and other books, and has held several one-man shows and curated exhibitions at museums world-wide

A (Short?) Filmography:• 1966 Train• 1967 Revolution• 1969 Intervals• 1971 Erosion• 1975 Windows• 1977 Dear Phone• 1978 1-100• 1980 The Falls• 1982 Act of God• 1982 The Draughtman’s Contract

“Everythingis permissible in art.” Cont’d…

and more films…• 1984 Making a Splach• 1985 Inside Rooms-26 Bathrooms• 1986 A Zed and Two Noughts• 1987 The Belly of an Architect• 1988 Drowning by Numbers• 1989 A TV Dante- Cantos 1-8• 1991 Prospero’s Books• 1992 Rosa• 1993 The Baby of Macon• 1994 The Stairs, Geneva• 1995 The Pillow Book

These are the twenty-four books that Gonzalo hastily threw into Prospero's boat as he was pushed out into the sea to begin his exile. These books enabled Prospero to find his way across the oceans, to combat the malignancies of Sycorax, to colonise the island, to free Ariel, to educate and entertain Miranda, to summon tempests and bring his enemies to heel.

Prospero’s Books1. The Book of Water 2. A Book of Mirrors 3. A Book of Mythologies 4. A Primer of the Small Stars 5. An Atlas Belonging to Orpheus 6. A Harsh Book of Geometry 7. The Book of Colours 8. The Vesalius Anatomy of Birth 9. An Alphabetical Inventory of the Dead 10.10. A Book of Travelers' Tales A Book of Travelers' Tales 11.11. The Book of the Earth The Book of the Earth 12.12. A Book of Architecture and Other MusicA Book of Architecture and Other Music

Prospero’s Books (cont’d)13. The Ninety-Two Conceits of the Minotaur 14. The Book of Languages 15. End-plants 16. A Book of Love 17. A Bestiary of Past, Present, and Future Animals 18. The Book of Utopias 19. The Book of Universal Cosmography 20. Lore of Ruins 21. The Autobiographies of Pasiphae and Semiramis 22. A Book of Motion 23. The Book of Games 24. Thirty-Six Plays

What do you think?• Is Miranda’s position equal in

stature to the other (all male) characters in the play?

• Consider: (Prospero, to Miranda) “Silence! one word more shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! An advocate for an imposter! hush! Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he, Having seen but him and Caliban: foolish wench!” Act I, Scene II

•

For Discussion For Discussion ::

Do you think the portrayal of Do you think the portrayal of Caliban within the film Caliban within the film

Prospero’s BooksProspero’s Books serves to serves to represent his character represent his character

accurately? Why or why not?accurately? Why or why not?

(Hint: Think about the (Hint: Think about the choreography!)choreography!)

Other important ideas….?Other important ideas….?• How are gender roles

played out within The Tempest? Does Greenaway create a more distinct gender boundary in his work?

• How does his use of nudity in the film affect the gender roles?

References: