| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 英國語文學系 === 92 === This thesis investigates the constructions of self and the fluidity of space in the sixteen century, with specific focus on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Grounded with a new historical reading and applied a postmodern theory on space, I discuss how the development of self is linked with space and the changeable spatiality makes the process of self-identity incomplete.
The focus of Chapter One is on the way of constructions of self in the sixteenth Elizabethan England. By historicizing the sociopolitical background in the sixteenth century, I discuss the existence of “other” is needed in the way of constructions of self. Also, the market-oriented social atmosphere makes the self-identity inseparable with personal possessions. The radical change in this era change the stable self-image as The Merchant of Venice discloses them.
The blossom of capitalism in this age also changes the concept of space. Chapter Two explores the power of capitalism and money-oriented concern change the spatiality of the two worlds in this play─Venice and Belmont─and moreover, makes the two opposite spaces become similar and mirror each other. I argue that by characters’ spatial practices in a certain space, the construction of space can be reshaped or deconstructed.
In Chapter Three, the two issues of self and space will be brought together. I examine the relationship between the self and space and further to suggest that the self-identity is hardly to achieve results from the collapse of different spaces, such as the public space and the private space. The non-places in The Merchant of Venice help me demonstrate the absence of private space and its relationship with self-constructions.
To sum up, identity formations in the Renaissance are manipulated internally by the religious quarrels and externally by the impact of capitalism and the non-place settings in this play cannot offer a sense of identity and location for a self.
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