Titolo della tesi: An investigation into Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation (OP): Systematising debates and data, and exploring OP at the Globe in the 21st century
This thesis engages with Original Pronunciation (OP) or the reconstructed pronunciation of Shakespeare’s works. In particular, my work intends to systematise 21st-century scholarly debates and information on OP and related theatrical productions by also resorting to non-academic sources such as newspaper articles and reviews. Further, my research aims to examine the overall use of OP at the Globe which has only been object of limited investigation by looking into the adoption of OP, the recovery and non-retrieval of textual elements and the audience response to “Romeo and Juliet” (2004) and “Troilus and Cressida” (2005). To those ends, I have qualitatively analysed existing material by focusing on main debates and information, and carried out small-scope investigations aimed at gaining better insight into the reconstructed pronunciation in theatre.
While shedding light on the object, evidence and methodology of present-day reconstructions of OP, this thesis comes to question the complete reliability of some tools (e.g. rhymes) and calls for an expansion of the supposed corpus of scholars. It also shows greater or lesser differences between scholarly reconstructions and within the reconstructions by the very same linguist, David Crystal, a leading figure in the OP field. Still in terms of reconstructions, my research records a certain opacity of suprasegmentals, the existence of a “usual speech” and the lack of clear indications for some regional and foreign sounds. When it comes to theatrical productions, OP, generally speaking, is shown to retrieve textual elements, impact actors and to be not always comprehended and appreciated by spectators. My analysis concerning the stagings at the Globe does not greatly detach from such a portrayal; yet, it also reveals the non-recovery of textual elements such as rhymes, and makes voices critical of OP stand out, which cast a shadow on official accounts and testimonies on the pronunciation. Eventually, OP appears as a present artifact still in need of being investigated and fusing modern ideas and values with reconstructed sounds.
Adopting a multifaceted perspective that combines historical linguistics, literature and audience reception, this work attempts to provide an outline of OP and its use in theatre and to shed light on unexplored elements so far. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to enriching debates on the value of OP in theatrical productions, expanding the field of OP scholarship and paving the way to further studies on the reconstructed pronunciation, both phonological and theatrical in nature.
Keywords: Shakespeare, original pronunciation, 21st century, theatre, evidence, rhymes, audience response, Globe.