Word: within
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Taming of the Shrew” traditionally focus on the play’s portrayal of gender stereotypes and the domestication of women, what intrigues Bensussen about the show is the idea of transformation. In the director’s notes, she writes, “Within the world of ‘Shrew,’ everyone is playing at what they are not, and class, as well as gender, are exposed as performances in which performer and viewer are complicit...
Thus begins the actual story of “Shrew.” Bensussen manipulates this play-within-a-play trope to great success for the majority of the opening scenes. The actors take on their roles with the delightful awkwardness of children in a school play—scripts in hand, direction shouted at them mid-scene, and endearingly over-the-top line readings. Yet as the show progresses, the actors become more comfortable in their roles, and the production shifts from a clever tongue-in-cheek commentary on social performativity into a relatively normal presentation of Shakespeare?...
Such self-consciousness is the mark of much modern writing as well—quite notably, that of Paul Auster. Auster is a master of metafiction, writing about stories and within stories, writing about writers and the act of writing. From his initial success with 1987’s “New York Trilogy” to more recent novels like 2004’s “Oracle Night” and now with “Invisible,” Auster continues to surround his novels’ protagonists in layers of text...
...writing about myself in the first person, I had smothered myself and made myself invisible, had made it impossible for me to find the thing I was looking for. I needed to separate myself from myself.” Walker’s literary distance—within the context of these self-conscious sections—helps him look for himself in darkly tinged sexuality and self-revelation...
This melting, however, doesn’t obscure the fact that Auster is a master of crafting intricate tales within tales. His novels are supremely readable and enticing. But even though his characters search for identity, like Walker in “Invisible,” they remain just that—invisible. Like Courbet, Auster has managed to create a work of art out of the awareness of tradition. He just never manages to break from...