Hansen, Claire Gwendoline (2015) The complexity of dance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Early Modern Literary Studies, 18 (1 & 2).

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Abstract

In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dance operates as a vehicle for interaction and transformation. In exhibiting these complex behavioural patterns, dance falls under the purview of complexity theory, which is interested in how systems are created and changed through the interaction of their parts. The aim of this essay is to use the lens of complexity theory to reconsider the role of dance in three key passages of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This analysis will demonstrate that the dances of the play function as an alternative model of network interactions or politicised discourses used to explore the negotiation of tensions, and to communicate between and across different systems within the play’s narrative.

Item ID:	52598
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1201-2459
Keywords:	Shakespeare, dance, complexity theory, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Additional Information:	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Date Deposited:	26 Feb 2018 03:34
FoR Codes:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2005 Literary Studies > 200503 British and Irish Literature @ 100%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture @ 100%
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