Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-x59qb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T08:31:58.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From Liturgy to the Globe: the Changing Concept of Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2007

Stanley Wells
Affiliation:
Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Get access

Summary

The starting point of my argument is the assumption that spatial and temporal structures and relationships are basic to the way in which societies both shape and comprehend the world around them. These structures and relationships may be of dual natures: physical, belonging to the empirical world, and mental, belonging to imaginary, fictional or metaphysical realms. Thus, among other creations of the human mind and technical skills, theatre and drama may be seen as reflections of particular cognitive models of the universe, created in given periods. One of the peculiar features of theatre is the division, which may generally be defined as one between two times and two spaces, that of the performers and that of the spectators. This division lies at the very roots of the rise of theatre and drama and their further evolution and the whole history of theatre may in fact be depicted as a constantly changing relationship between the two spaces and between the two times, the spatio-temporal continuum of the auditorium and that belonging to the artistic realm created on the stage during a spectacle.

Type
Chapter
Information
Shakespeare Survey
, pp. 46 - 53
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×