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Abstract
This study uses performance theory to examine modern dramatic adaptations of Renaissance plays, arguing that modern and postmodern dramatists rewrite the literary past in an act of cultural and theatrical surrogation. The first chapter addresses modern playwrights need to destroy and replace their Renaissance forbearers. Presenting the human body, especially the body of the actor or playwright as an effigy of flesh that contains cultural memory and embodies the literary canon, these playwrights work metaphorical violence on corpses that represent the literary corpus. The second chapter focuses on Bernard Shaws life-long struggle to present himself as a cultural surrogate for Shakespeare, through the performance of his public persona as G.B.S., through his Shakespearean criticism, and through his appropriation of King Lear in Heartbreak House. Shaws need to destroy Shakespeares corpse and corpus leads to a battle against aestheticism and pessimistic passivity. The third chapter examines Brechts adaptation of Marlowes Edward II and argues that the alienation effect can be understood as a surrogation effect, focusing on images of violent skinning in Brechts play, as his characters enact surrogation by tearing the flesh from both corpse and corpus. The fourth chapter explores surrogation as cannibalism in Mllers Hamletmachine and Shakespeares Hamlet, interpreting the fathers corpse and the mothers womb as symbols for literary adaptation in Mllers play. The fifth chapter deals with Becketts Endgame and Happy Days, reading Endgame as an adaptation of The Tempest and arguing that the disembodied characters in Happy Days represent the erasure of the Shakespearean past. The final chapter focuses on Stoppards Shakespeare in Love and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, concluding that Stoppards screenplay appropriates Shakespeare in the style of Shaw, constructing Stoppards persona as Shakespeares surrogate, while Stoppards adaptation of Hamlet draws the audience into an encounter with the theaters role as haunted memory machine. Ultimately, this dissertation explores the central role that responding to Renaissance drama played in the creation of individual modern dramatists canons and theories of theater, and the ways that the theater, as a vessel for cultural memory, engages the ghosts of previous plays and playwrights.