ENG140Y1 Lecture 6: 06 Arcadia 1
Document Summary
Arcadia: what the fuck is going on here: binary con ict between sciences and humanities, dif cult play to read. Stoppard known for dif cult and complex works: focus on con icts of knowledge. Both modern and antique are involved in quests of knowledge. Obsessions with answers: how: plot structures, characters, dif culty. Reading drama as literature: setting and time established: build an image. Simultaneous action time difference indicated by costumes, etc: scenes sometimes overlaid; sometimes confusingly blurred, arcadia"s plots intermingle/exist separately. Early 1800s: thomasina (maths prodigy) and septimus (tutor), people like. 1990s: bernard nightengale and hannah jarvis academics studying something related to the manor: connections between future/past, 1990s people try to gure out 1800s story. They have theories and interpretations sometimes accurate to what we see from the time, sometimes inaccurate. Plot: stoppard plays with the meaning: two plots, garden plots, mathematical plotting.
