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Show SAINT IAGO: A PLAY IN FIVE ACTS A FOUNDATION POURED IN CEMENT, FOR A TIME, FORWARD! JoSelle L. Vanderhooft, (Richard Scha-rine), Theatre Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 Saint lago is an Elizabethan verse play which explores a question that has puz-zled Shakespearean scholars interested in Othello from the Seventeenth Century to modern times; what were logo's mo-tives for murdering four innocent people? While some scholars, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge have attributed logo's actions to nothing more than the villain's inborn demonic nature ("the motive-hunt-ing of motiveless malignity"), Saint logo's author disagrees with this assertion. In-stead, this play's author, after conducting several close-readings of Othello over a period of eight years, concludes that the roots of logo's anti-social behavior can be found in logo's profound loneliness, childlessness and a damaged sense of pride and masculinity. While fundamen-tally akin to an Elizabethan romance in its language, structure and execution, Saint lago nonetheless incorporates the use of modern anachronism and an active sense of femininity (as evinced through the character Bianca's actions) in the creation of a neo-Elizabethan play. Maxwell Jeffrey Wilson (Dr. Eric Laursen), Department of Languages and Litera-ture, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 My research with Dr. Laursen has con-centrated on the development of Social-ist Realism, based upon Soviet literature written from 1925 until 1932. When So-cialist Realism was formulated in 1934, Soviet writers looked to early Soviet lit-erature as a basis for what correct So-cialist Realism should contain. Cement, published in 1925, was chosen as the quintessential Soviet novel upon which the majority of all future Soviet novels were based. Time, Forward!, published in 1932, was also chosen as a model of correct Socialist Realism. My research defends the argument that Cement is flawed as a founding work of Socialist Realism when it is contrasted with Time, Forward!. Socialist Realism requires that any literature conforming to its standard must be concentrated on the progression of Communism. Ce-ment's flaw is that its plot is too intensely focused on the lives' of its individual characters. Time, Forward! places the lives of its individual characters squarely in the background of the plot, allowing the plot to focus on the advancement of Communism. My paper is part of a larger inquiry into Soviet literature and its development. This project is of practical interest to those both studying Soviet literature and its history. {103} |