The role of mute characters and muteness in the first English melodramas
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14640%2F23%3A00130293" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14640/23:00130293 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://pdf.uhk.cz/hkjas/pi/pi_8-1-2021.php" target="_blank" >http://pdf.uhk.cz/hkjas/pi/pi_8-1-2021.php</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
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Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The role of mute characters and muteness in the first English melodramas
Original language description
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 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. The paper discusses 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, it analyses the first English melodrama and shows how the different manifestation of muteness in the form of postures, gestures, silent tableaux and music intensified the theatrical appeal of the play. Finally, it is argued that the legacy of the first melodrama reverberated in the English theatre of the nineteenth century and the first silent films, which is illustrated by the example of the first adaptation of Frankenstein with its mute Creature.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>ost</sub> - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60204 - General literature studies
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Hradec Králové Journal of Anglophone Studies
ISSN
2336-3347
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
2022
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1-2
Country of publishing house
CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC
Number of pages
9
Pages from-to
81-89
UT code for WoS article
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EID of the result in the Scopus database
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