Narrating the Self in English Renaissance Drama: Storytelling and Self-narration in Thomas Kyd’s the Spanish Tragedy

• Main Author: Demir Alihodžić
• Format: Article
• Language: Bosnian
• Published: University of Tuzla, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 2016-12-01
• Series: Društvene i Humanističke Studije
• Subjects: english renaissance drama; thomas kyd; the spanish tragedy; storytelling; self-narration
• Online Access: http://www.dhs.ff.untz.ba/index.php/home/article/view/5

This paper examines the use of techniques of storytelling and self-narration on the English stage in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with an emphasis on Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. The playwrights of the period were negotiating their way in a new world in which language was a medium which was coming more and more to be respected, and those who could wield it had the potential for advancement in ways never before conceivable. In the forefront of those negotiating for such a place through their art was Thomas Kyd. He may be considered the pioneer in the development of the self on the English stage in the early modern period through storytelling and self-narration as representational techniques. The paper also examines some of the profound changes in dramaturgy which took place in the period in question and which culminated in the drama of Thomas Kyd.