This guide helps readers make sense of the most commonly taught
writer in the world. One approach to Shakespeare is as a dramatist
while another approach is to think of him as essentially a poetic
writer. The tension between these two views is a theme in this book
because it helps us to reflect upon changing literary and critical
trends. This is primarily a book for readers of Shakespeare who
most commonly experience Shakespeare-on-stage through imagined
performances in their own heads.
The book starts with a brief explanation of how Shakespeare's
writings have come down to us as a series of scripts for actors in
the early modern theatre industry of London. The first half of the
book then interrogates Shakespearean genres, while the second half
examines different critical approaches to his plays via the four
key issues of authorship, performance, identity and materialism.
The book returns repeatedly to such questions as: 'what has changed
since Shakespeare's time?', 'to what uses has Shakespeare been
put?', and 'what value is in Shakespeare?' - questions that go to
the heart of why we study Shakespeare.
Key Features
*A chronology of Shakespeare's career as an actor/dramatist that
locates him within the theatre industry of his time.
*New readings of twelve plays that form a core of the
Shakespeare canon: "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Much Ado About
Nothing," "Richard 2," "Henry 5," "Hamlet," "Othello," "All's Well
that Ends Well," "The Winter's Tale," "Macbeth," "Measure for
Measure," "The Tempest," and "Timon of Athens,"
*Critical analyses organized by genre (comedies, histories,
tragedies, and romance) and by four key critical approaches:
authorship, performance, identities, and materialism.
*An extensive resources section, including a glossary of the
important critical terms that are often used in debates about
Shakespeare.
General
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