论科里奥兰纳斯的悲剧缺陷 Tragic Flaws of Coriolanus开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

literature review

shakespeare, an english poet and playwright, produced many comedies, histories and tragedies, considered some of the finest works in the english language. in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and coriolanus is his last tragedy and last romance. the hero marcius was a brave ad upright man, so he was not willing to ingratiate himself with those civilians. also because of his pride, he chose to attack his country as revenge when he was exiled instead of keeping silent or taking it. it is his noble quality that leads to his downfall and death. however he did commit treason. that is why his qualities become his tragic flaws and make him a tragic hero. in the play, the roman republic is a democratic country, but actually the civilians were used and visibly controlled by two selfish and contemptible tribunes.

a. c. bradley(2006) described this play as "built on the grand scale" in shakespearean tragedy. the warrior coriolanus is perhaps the most opaque of shakespeare's tragic heroes, rarely pausing to soliloquize or reveal the motives behind his prideful isolation from roman society. readers and playgoers have often found him an unsympathetic character, although his caustic pride is strangely, almost delicately balanced at times by a reluctance to be praised by his compatriots and an unwillingness to exploit and slander for political gain. his dislike of being praised might be seen as an expression of his pride; all he cares about is his own self-image, whereas acceptance of praise might imply that his value is affected by others' opinion of him.

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

methods and procedures of the study

in order to figure out what exactly shakespeare wanted to reveal, first i have read the english version, as well as a chinese version translated by zhu shenghao, because shakespeares work is full of archaic and obscure words and expressions. then, a more visualized method is utilized- watching the adopted movie for several times. this great play has been adopted into many plays, but due to the limitation of resources, i have only watched the movie directed by ralf fiennes in 2011 and the drama starring tom hiddleston at domar warehouse in 2013.

after reading the play, i have a clear idea of its main plots. with the primary understanding, i watched the movie. ralf fiennes makes a great adaption of the setting by putting the story in modern times that makes its modern significance and implications revealed. compared to the movie, the drama is more restored to the original one. moved by their wonderful performance and shakespeares language, i have further understanding and thinking about coriolanus.

as the greatest and most well-known english playwright, shakespeare has been studied by many scholars both domestic and overseas. however, only studying shakespeare and the play is far from enough, some relevant journals and books about roman values are also concerned. with the expectation for collecting more information and reviews to further my comprehension of the play and the hero, i looked into resources from schools library and e-library, like cnki. last but not least, my supervisor helps me a lot by advising me to combine coriolanuss tragedy with some characters in ancient rome and greek mythologies, modifying the thesis structure and polishing my language.