The Soundscape of Ophelias Zimmer / Ophelia’s Room

Maria Elisa Montironi

doi:10.7358/ling-2020-001-mont

The Soundscape of Ophelias Zimmer / Ophelia’s Room

Maria Elisa Montironi

Abstract

Ophelias Zimmer / Ophelia’s Room is a feminist spin-off of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It retells the famous story of the Prince of Denmark from Ophelia’s perspective and questions issues about the plot that are taken for granted – first and foremost, the reasons that led to the girl’s death. As it will be shown in this paper, the play tells the story of Hamlet not only from Ophelia’s viewpoint, but also from her ‘earpoint’ and thus defies ocularcentric theatre semiosis and builds a soundscape capable of denouncing the patriarchy even more effectively than both visual and linguistic elements. In this paper, Ophelias Zimmer / Ophelia’s Room will be analysed using emerging theories on ‘theatre noise’ to demonstrate the dramatic and semiotic value of the play’s silences, sounds, noises, embodied sounds, and musicality.

Keywords

Ophelia; Shakespeare; Feminist criticism; Hamlet’s afterlife; Reception; Soundscape; Noise; Silence; Sound; Theatre.

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References

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Linguæ & - Rivista di lingue e culture moderne
Registered by Tribunale di Milano (06/04/2012 n. 185)
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Dipartimento di Scienze della Comunicazione, Studi Umanistici e Internazionali: Storia, Culture, Lingue, Letterature, Arti, Media
Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo

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