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Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 2, No. 156. Thursday, 6 Jun 1991.
 
(1)	Date: 	Wed, 5 Jun 91 19:41:20 PDT
	From: 	Geoffrey Hargreaves <Geoffrey_Hargreaves@cc.sfu.ca>
	Subj: 	SHK 2.0153  *TC*, Genre, Satire
 
(2)	Date: 	Wed, 5 Jun 1991 23:29:13 -0400
	From: 	Roy Flannagan <FLANNAGA@OUACCVMB.Bitnet>
	Subj:	[New from Yale UP; *TC* and Genre]
 
(3)	Date: 	Thu, 6 Jun 1991 04:58:00 -0400
	From: 	George Mosley <MOSLEY@UNC.BITNET>
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 2.0153  *TC*, Genre, Satire
	
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
	
Date: 		Wed, 5 Jun 91 19:41:20 PDT
From: 		Geoffrey Hargreaves <Geoffrey_Hargreaves@cc.sfu.ca>
Subject: *TC*, Genre, Satire
Comment: 	SHK 2.0153  *TC*, Genre, Satire
 
Kay, why not just say "I find it useful to think of literature as referring"
rather than "literature refers" ? That way you circumvent a host of problems.
 
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 		Wed, 5 Jun 1991 23:29:13 -0400
From: 		Roy Flannagan <FLANNAGA@OUACCVMB.Bitnet>
Subject:	[New from Yale UP; *TC* and Genre]
 
Several notes:  I would recommend the Louise Clubb book strongly, from
having read most of it.  Her style is graceful and the subject fresh,
learning worn lightly and unintrusive.  The book on pica type is also a
treasury of little-known information presented unpretentiously; it
deserves to be read, even if it deals with a back-closet subject.
 
And on Thersites in the Bronx once more: if Agamemnon and crew are as
boring as a dull committee meeting, Steve, where's the drama in that?
But to unsay some of what I said before, I saw a local production of T&C
in the late Sixties that was in all senses of the word liberating,
mainly because of the fine actor playing Pandarus, who stole the show
flamboyantly.  If that is the chemistry of the play, if Pandarus and
Thersites lead all other actors, perhaps the play is not so killingly
depressing.  But certainly Shakespeare debunked every value his audience
held sacred, from the remnants of courtly love to jousting to the innate
nobility of the aristocracy to the worship of a platonic ideal of
feminine beauty topping the topless towers.  As Pandarus sings, the bees
have lost their stingers, their song and their honey.
 
						Roy Flannagan
 
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------------
						
Date: 		Thu, 6 Jun 1991 04:58:00 -0400
From: 		George Mosley <MOSLEY@UNC.BITNET>
Subject: 2.0153  *TC*, Genre, Satire
Comment: 	Re: SHK 2.0153  *TC*, Genre, Satire
 
For Kay Stockholder:
 
I would agree with the problems you have with T&C's function as
personal or political satire.  However, I would offer that the play
can function as a satire without having particular reference either
to specifically intended persons or actions.  It can, after all,
be a satire of a tradition in literature, a parody (in the modern
sense) or burlesque of a genre.
 
A parody of genre works as long as the target genre persists.  In the
case of T&C, there are real problems of intention, of course, because
Shakespeare doesn't seem to be known for writing parody (there are
of course *very* easily defined parodies in the sonnets...well, perhaps
I'm being hyperbolic), so many audience members simply preclude the
possibility.  There are also problems with the persistence of the
target genre.
					George Mosley
					Mosley@unc.bitnet

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