PhD student research interests
Arbaayah Ali Termizi
Education
Degree in English Language and Literature (International Islamic University, Malaysia)
MA in Literary Studies (International Islamic University, Malaysia)
Working title for PhD thesis
Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in the Eighteenth Century
Supervisors: Mrs Leah Scragg and Dr Bill Hutchings.
Background of study
My study aims to analyse the history of one of Shakespeare's late tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra, in the eighteenth century. It proposes to look at the play from a variety of perspectives in order to promote an understanding of way in which the work was seen and understood during this period. The crucial factor underlying this project is the fact that though there is evidence of some performance history of Antony and Cleopatra in the early seventeenth century, after the production of John Dryden's All for Love in 1677, no performance of Shakespeare's play took place until a revival by David Garrick in 1759. It was Dryden's version of the Antony and Cleopatra story not Shakespeare's that was familiar to eighteenth-century playgoers, and the public only gained access to, and knowledge of the Shakespearean play by other means. It is these means and the way in which they shaped eighteenth-century understanding of the work that will be the main focus of this study. For the purposes of this research, the reception of the play will be investigated using the following tools: editions, critical commentaries, illustrations, performance records, and allusions in other works.
My e-mail address is amiazz@yahoo.com.