Series Information:
Routledge Literary Sourcebooks

Drawing comparisons between consultancy and the classical tragedy, King Lear, the author explores the core theme of responsibility. Arguing that King Lear is vital to gaining an understanding of consulting, leadership and management, the author explores in detail the positive lessons to be learnt from this tragedy for the manager and the management consultant. Erik de Haan is a Senior Organisation Development Consultant at Ashridge Consulting. He specialises in the interpersonal and dramatic aspects of working in groups and organisations. He has worked as a trainer and consultant for different firms in the Netherlands.

This Reader's Guide provides a critical survey of the responses to this popular play, from the earliest published accounts to the present day. Leading the reader through the material in a chronological fashion, the book draws on a rich range of critical writings, including Dr. Johnson, Coleridge, Bradley, and Leavis. Nicholas Potter carefully relates this material to more general issues regarding Shakespearean criticism and scholarship, and the development of literary history and theory.

The appearance in 1609 of Shakespeare's Sonnets is cloaked in mystery and controversy, while the poems themselves are masterpieces of silence and deception. The intervening four centuries have done little to diminish either their mystique or their appeal, and recent years have witnessed an upsurge in interest in these brilliant and contentious lyrics. John Blades' penetrating study of the Sonnets is a highly lucid introduction to Shakespeare's subjects and poetic craft, involving detailed insights on the major themes, together with a comprehensive exploration of the Rival Poet and Dark Mistress sequences. Shakespeare: The Sonnets: - draws on an extensive range of sonnets, offering a line-by-line analysis that engages with the poems as masterworks in their own right, as well as registering their relationship with Shakespeare's dramas - locates the Sonnets in their Elizabethan and humanist framework, with a survey of the history of the sonnet form and rhetorical conventions within the context of the early modern period - concludes with a brief assessment of critical attitudes towards the Sonnets over the four centuries since their publication and an indepth examination of four important critics. Providing students with the critical and analytical skills with which to approach the Sonnets, and featuring a helpful glossary and suggestions for further study, this fascinating book is an indispensable guide.

This clearly introduces the many critical issues surrounding this complex and haunting play. Ioppolo examines sources, from Holinshed to Spencer, and in the Interpretations section looks at critical readings and notable performances of the play. These range from early critical responses and performances to recent stage and screen interpretations. Edited key passages connect the play to its contexts and criticism, providing both a guide and a new perspective on King Lear. Careful annotation explains Shakespeare's language. This Routledge Literary Sourcebook is ideal introduction for undergraduates, providing orientation in the play, its reception history and the critical material which surrounds it. It examines King Lear within its literary and cultural contexts, bringing together:
*contemporary documents surrounding King Lear
*performance history
*early critical reception from major critics
*twentieth-century criticism
*key passages.
All documents are discussed and explained. The volume also offers carefully annotated key passages from the play itself and concludes with a list of recommended editions and further reading, allowing readers to pursue their study in the areas that interest them most. Grace Ioppolo's broad-ranging analysis and the wealth of materials she brings together make this the ideal guide for any student of King Lear.

Drawing on the later writings of Martin Heidegger, the book traces the correspondence between the philosopher's concept of technology and Shakespeare's poetics of human and natural productivity in the Sonnets.

The Romantics invented Shakespeare studies, and in losing contact with our origins, we have not been able to develop an adequate alternative foundation on which to build our work. This book asserts that among Shakespeareans at present, the level of conviction required to sustain a healthy critical practice is problematically if not dangerously low, and the qualities which the Romantics valued in an engagement with Shakespeare are either ignored these days or fundamentally misunderstood.

An original and provocative study of the evolution of Shakespeare's image, building on the success of Duncan-Jones' acclaimed biography, "Shakespeare: An Ungentle Life." Taking a broadly chronological approach, she investigates Shakespeare's changing reputation, as a man, an actor and a poet, both from his own viewpoint and from that of his contemporaries. Many different categories of material are explored, including printed books, manuscripts, literary and non-literary sources. Rather than a biography, the book is an exploration with biographical elements. The change in public opinion in Shakespeare's time is quite startling: Henry Chettle attacked him as an 'upstart Crow' in 1592, an attack from which Shakespeare sought to defend himself; and yet by the time of the First Folio in 1623 he had become the 'Sweet Swan of Avon ' and was fast becoming the literary treasure he remains today.

This engaging and fascinating study brings the politics and fashions of Shakespeare's literary and theatrical world vividly to life.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity "offers the first sustained examination of fatness in the early modern period. As Levy-Navarro notes, bodily perceptions have evolved that value the thin body as they mark and stigmatize the fat one. Using readings of such major figures as Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton, this book considers alternative ways that fat was constructed before the introduction of the modern pathologized category of "obesity." Levy-Navarro argues that Shakespeare, Jonson, and Skelton understood that a thin aesthetic consolidates the power of the elite and chose to align themselves with their fat, lowly, and revolting characters--an alliance that offers a model of defiance with continued relevance.""

Contents:
General Editor's Preface. List of Illustrations. Contributors. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction: John Drakakis 2. Swisser-Swatter: making a man of English letters: Terence Hawkes 3. Post-structuralist Shakespeare: text and ideology: Christopher Norris 4. Deconstructing Shakespeare's comedies: Malcolm Evans 5. Sexulaity in the reading of Shakespeare: Hamlet and Measure for Measure: Jacqueline Rose 6. Reading the signs: towards a semiotics of Shakespearean drama: Alessandro Serpieri, translated by Keir Elam 7. Shakespeare in ideology: James H. Kavanagh 8. Disrupting sexual difference: meaning and gender in the comedies: Catherine Belsey 9. Nymphs and reapers heavily vanish: the discursive con-texts of The Tempest: Francis Barker and Peter Hulme 10. History and ideology: the instance of Henry V: Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield 11. Afterword: Robert Weimann.

This book throws new light on the issue of the dramatist's religious orientation by dismissing sectarian and one-sided theories, tackling the problem from the angle of the variegated Elizabethan context recently uncovered by modern historians and theatre scholars. It is argued that faith was a quest rather than a quiet certainty for the playwright.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is one of the most read and performed of Shakespeare's plays. This book provides an introductory guide to the play, offering a scene-by-scene theatrically aware commentary, contextual documents, a brief history of the text and first performances, case studies of three or four key performances and productions, a survey of film and TV adaptation, and wide sampling of critical opinion and annotated further reading.

Through analysis of 5 plays by Shakespeare, Paul Raffield examines what it meant to be a 'stranger' to English law in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean period. The numbers of strangers increased dramatically in the late sixteenth century, as refugees fled religious persecution in continental Europe and sought sanctuary in Protestant England. In the context of this book, strangers are not only persons ethnically or racially different from their English counterparts, be they immigrants, refugees, or visitors. The term also includes those who transgress or are simply excluded by their status from established legal norms by virtue of their faith, sexuality, or mode of employment. Each chapter investigates a particular category of 'stranger'. Topics include the treatment of actors in late Elizabethan England and the punishment of 'counterfeits' (Measure for Measure); the standing of refugees under English law and the reception of these people by the indigenous population (The Comedy of Errors); the establishment of 'Troynovant' as an international trading centre on the banks of the Thames (Troilus and Cressida); the role of law and the state in determining the rights of citizens and aliens (The Merchant of Venice); and the disenfranchised, estranged position of the citizen in a dysfunctional society and an acephalous realm (King Lear). This is the third sole-authored book by Paul Raffield on the subject of Shakespeare and the Law. The others are Shakespeare's Imaginary Constitution: Late Elizabethan Politics and the Theatre of Law (2010) and The Art of Law in Shakespeare (2017), both published by Hart/Bloomsbury.

This compendium opens the stagedoor for those with little or no practical experience in acting. For actors and other theatre specialists grappling with the challenges posed by performing or staging the works of the great Bard, here is useful instruction eloquently expressed that will enrich future interpretation and performance. On Playing Shakespeare takes advantage of the long tradition of Shakespearean acting by offering a rich treasury of writings by noted actors who have essayed Shakespearean roles in the past. The perspectives of these thespians offer comprehensive exposure to the challenges of acting in Shakespeare's plays and are emblematic of theatre repertories and popular tastes from the mid-eighteenth century to World War I. Here is Ellen Terry writing on her role as Mamellius in an 1856 production of The Winter's Tale, Edwin Booth on Iago, Fanny Kemble on Lady Macbeth, and dozens of other actors who made lasting theatrical contributions with their interpretations of Shakespeare. These commentaries also bear witness to the actor's eternal struggle to get on the stage, stay on the stage, and perform Shakespearean roles to varied audiences in sometimes less-than-ideal conditions. The heart of the book, and its climax, deals with matters of interpretation, with actors' differing reactions to the same role placed side-by-side for purposes of clear contrast. The work includes photographs of John Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, and others in roles they discuss in the book. The volume proceeds in sequence from the sort of background and training necessary to approach Shakespeare with assurance through the performance itself and its aftermath. The first section of adviceand commentary deals with "Preliminaries," such as training, body and movement, voice and diction, ease and concentration, and more. This chapter includes four actors on "Beginning in Shakespeare." In "Getting the Part," which includes casting, Clara Morris writes on a young actress as Juliet. Writings on reading the play, memorizing, observation, research, and gesture are included in the section on "Working the Part." Interpreting, rehearsing, and performing the part each receive separate sections. In "Clusters of Commentary," the book's longest section, various actors comment on performing specific roles, such as eight actors on Hamlet, three actresses on Portia, and more. On Playing Shakespeare speaks to actors and directors who face the contemporary challenges of playing Shakespeare and to Shakespeareans and scholars with more general interests in the history, technique, and tradition of Shakespearean acting. A must for graduate and undergraduate courses in acting Shakespeare; courses in the history of acting; and graduate courses in nineteenth-century British and American theatre history.

York Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

Shakespeare wrote for a theater in which the audience was understood to be, and at times invited to be, active and participatory. How have Shakespeare's audiences, from the sixteenth century to the present, responded to that invitation? In what ways have consumers across different cultural contexts, periods, and platforms engaged with the performance of Shakespeare's plays? What are some of the different approaches taken by scholars today in thinking about the role of Shakespeare's audiences and their relationship to performance? The chapters in this collection use a variety of methods and approaches to explore the global history of audience experience of Shakespearean performance in theater, film, radio, and digital media. The approaches that these contributors take look at Shakespeare's audiences through a variety of lenses, including theater history, dramaturgy, film studies, fan studies, popular culture, and performance. Together, they provide both close studies of particular moments in the history of Shakespeare's audiences and a broader understanding of the various, often complex, connections between and among those audiences across the long history of Shakespearean performance.

Fundamentals of Soil provides a comprehensive and engaging introduction to soils and the workings of soil systems. This text is the only one of its kind to provide an attractive, lively and accessible introduction to this topic. Featuring learning tools within each chapter, such as summaries, essay questions and guides for further reading, the text is also highly illustrated with useful tables, boxes and figures. Covering all key areas of study at an introductory level, subjects covered include:
· Soil properties
· Soil processes
· Controls on soil formation
· Soil classification
· World soils
· Soil patterns
· Soil degradation.

This book explores ways in which Shakespeare's writing strategies shape our embodied perception of objects - both real and imaginary - in four of his plays. Taking the reader on a series of perceptual journeys, it engages in an exciting dialogue between the disciplines of phenomenology, cognitive studies, historicist research and modern acting techniques, in order to probe our sentient and intuitive responses to Shakespeare's language. What happens when we encounter objects on page and stage; and how we can imagine that impact in performance? What influences might have shaped the language that created them; and what do they reveal about our response to what we see and hear? By placing objects under the phenomenological lens, and scrutinising them as vital conduits between lived experience and language, this book illuminates Shakespeare's writing as a rich source for investigation into the way we think, feel and communicate as embodied beings.

Romeo and Juliet always use 'thou' to each other, but they are the only pair of lovers in Shakespeare to do this. Why? All the women in Richard III address Richard as 'thou', but no man ever does. Why? When characters address the dead, they use 'thou' - except for Hamlet, who addresses Yorick as 'you'. Why? Shakespeare's contemporaries would have known the answers to these questions because they understood what 'thou' signified, but modern actors and audiences are in the dark. Through performance-oriented analysis of extracts from the plays, this book explores the language of 'trulls' and termagants, true loves and unwelcome wooers, male impersonators, smothering mothers, warring spouses and fighting men, as well as investigating lese-majeste, Freudian slips, crisis moments and rhetorical flourishes. Drawing on work with RSC actors, as well as the author's experience of playing a range of Shakespearean roles, the book equips the reader with a new tool for tracking emotions, weighing power relations and appreciating dazzling complexity.

An enhanced exam section: expert guidance on approaching exam questions, writing high-quality responses and using critical interpretations, plus practice tasks and annotated sample answer extracts. Key skills covered: focused tasks to develop analysis and understanding, plus regular study tips, revision questions and progress checks to help students track their learning. The most in-depth analysis: detailed text summaries and extract analysis to in-depth discussion of characters, themes, language, contexts and criticism, all helping students to reach their potential.

In this text, the author Philippa Berry rewrites critical perceptions of death in Shakespeare's tragedies from a feminist perspective. Drawing on feminist theory, postmodern thought and queer theory, Berry challenges existing critical notions of what is "fundamental" to Shakespearean tragedy. She argues that there is a figurative rejection of death as terminus, which owes more to pagan thought than Christian. Through a close reading of the main tragedies, Berry discovers a sensuous and meditative Shakespearean discourse of materialism. Her theoretical and textual insights into the properties of matter, time, the soul, and the body now have relevance to contemporary debates about time and matter in science and philosophy.

English Stage Comedy 1490-1990 is a unique and beautifully written study of the comedy of the English stage from the Tudor period to the late twentieth century. Alexander Leggatt demonstrates that an examination of comedy as a 'genre' can tell us much about the relationships between literature and society. English Stage Comedy 1490-1990 surveys five centuries of classic comic drama, focusing on major playwrights such as:
* Shakespeare
* Jonson
* Etherege
* Wycherley
* Congreve
* Vanbrugh
* Goldsmith
* Sheridan
* Wilde
* Shaw
* Coward
* Orton
* Ayckbourn

During the Renaissance, moral philosophy came to permeate the minds of many, including the spectators that poured into Shakespeare's Globe theatre. Examining these strains of thought that formed the basis for humanism, Raspa delves into King Lear, Hamlet, among others to unlock what influence this had on both Shakespeare and his interpreters.

In critical history, Shakespeare's The Tempest has been interpreted as a reticent play, a fascinating and yet mysterious blend of magic and verisimilitude, narrative and drama, spectacle and meditation on death. The Tempest seems to raise fundamental issues without ever exhausting them, it captures and appropriates existing motifs and modes, and allows for later appropriations and re-mediations. Is its signifying potential still alive in the third millennium? Does it still speak to us? Revisiting The Tempest aims to explore that potential and examine the play's more 'intractable material' as a fertile source of significance.The essays that make up this collection range from investigations of the play's position within the European early modern dramatic heritage to its 'domestic' re-writings and/or adaptations in diverse theatrical contexts and media, while also interrogating the play's own resistance to interpretation. Rather than providing new meanings, Revisiting The Tempest explores how this drama makes meaning and reanimates it through time.