Shakespeare and discourses of relevance: Education, Policy, Text, and Performance

莎士比亚的相关性一直是教育工作者、历史学家和戏剧公司关注的问题，但“相关性”在现在和历史上对莎士比亚的意义是什么？这篇论文提供了第一个彻底的理论化的相关性是如何利用和理解与莎士比亚有关。该项目的第一部分是对几个莎士比亚机构的相关性进行跨历史分析。基于Ryan (2015)， McLuskie和Rumbold（2014）以及Hartley（2013）对文化价值的研究，本论文将确定支配莎士比亚与相关性之间关系的基本意识形态，以及自18世纪以来这如何塑造了生产和接受。我首先考虑了莎士比亚在评论界的版本和演出中被接受的历史，然后再转向政府政策、资助机构和教育机构的语言。我的研究方法利用语境化的细读，运用来自批判性话语分析的工具，旨在理解多种类型和话语形式的意识形态动机议程。论文的第二部分以第一部分的结论为基础，对论文研究期间莎士比亚的几部戏剧、文学和电影作品以及围绕这些作品的论述进行了原创的表演分析。我提供了一个理解“相关莎士比亚”的新框架，以展示这个缺乏理论化的术语是如何使用的，并且可以更好地理解，开发方法来回应对“相关莎士比亚”日益增长的需求，清晰而全面。这个项目建立在我在诺丁汉的学习基础上，在那里我获得了一流的学士学位和硕士学位，并获得了最高平均成绩的二年级奖。我的本科论文采用了社会语言学的方法来讨论《无事生非》改编中的性别问题，并启发了我的硕士论文，该论文运用语言认同理论来探讨《驯悍记》作为虐待叙事的改编。这项研究激发了我对相关性作为一个理论概念的兴趣，我已经在莎士比亚学院的布里格勒会议上传播了它的一些元素。在我的学位学习过程中，我培养了这个项目所需要的语言和表演分析技能，以及文本历史方面的专业知识，其中最突出的是一篇长长的硕士论文，在文本、舞台和屏幕上探索马洛的《爱德华二世》中王权的表现，得到了80分。我在所有语言学模块中都取得了70分以上的成绩，并且在手稿、印刷和数字文化方面的独立研究项目中表现出色，包括创作一本17世纪常书的手稿描述和一本古苏格兰诗歌的数字版本。

Shakespeare's relevance is an ongoing concern for educators, historians and theatre companies, but what does 'relevance' mean in relation to Shakespeare, now and historically? This thesis offers the first thorough theorisation of how relevance is utilised and understood in relation to Shakespeare. The first part of this project is a transhistorical analysis of relevance across several Shakespearean institutions. Building on work on cultural value by Ryan (2015), McLuskie and Rumbold (2014), and Hartley (2013), this thesis will determine the underpinning ideologies governing the relationship between Shakespeare and relevance and how this has shaped production and reception since the eighteenth century. I first consider Shakespeare's reception history across critical editions and performances, before moving to the language of government policy, funding bodies and educational institutions. My methodology utilises contextualised close reading, deploying tools derived from Critical Discourse Analysis designed for understanding ideologically motivated agendas across multiple genres and forms of discourse.The second part of the thesis builds on the conclusions of part one, producing original performance analysis of several theatrical, literary and filmic productions of Shakespeare produced during the period of the thesis, and the discourse surrounding them. I offer a new framework for understanding 'relevantShakespeare' to show how this poorly theorised term is used and can be better understood, developing methodologies to respond to growing demands for 'relevant Shakespeare' clearly and comprehensively. This project builds upon my studies at Nottingham, where I achieved a first-class BA and an MA with distinction and was awarded the Year 2 prize for highest overall average. My undergraduate dissertation adapted sociolinguistic methods to discuss gender across adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing and inspired my MA dissertation, which applied linguistic identity theory to explore adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew as abuse narratives. This research developed my interest in relevance as a theoretical concept, and I have already disseminated elements of it at the Shakespeare Institute's Britgrad conference. Throughout my degrees I developed the linguistic and performance analysis skills and textual history expertise this project demands, with a highlight being a mark of 80 for a long MA essay exploring representations of kingship in Marlowe's Edward II across text, stage and screen. I achieved marks above 70 in all linguistics modules and excelled in independent research projects on manuscript, print and digital culture, including creating a manuscript description of a seventeenth-century commonplace bookand a digital edition of Older Scots poetry.