In this study of revenge tragedies – notably by Thomas Kyd,
William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, John Marston and John
Webster – Janet Clare suggests that genres are not passively
inherited, but made and re-made every time a new play is performed.
The implication that there is an identifiable genre of revenge
tragedy rehearsing common conventions is challenged as Clare
examines Renaissance plays of revenge on their own terms. While
disclosing evident inter-textual links and a similar appeal to
classical material, revenge plays of the late Elizabethan and
Jacobean period strive for a range of effects including satire,
parody and farce. Some plays embody a providential outlook while
others seem defiantly secular. Francis Bacon’s famous maxim ‘a
kind of wild justice’ captures the moral ambivalence of revenge:
a rough justice on the point of anarchy. Janet Clare demonstrates
the problematic nature of revenge as it defines dramatic action As
the exploration of plays in this study reveals, revenge is not only
bound up with justice, honour and duty, but impelled by perverted
impulses, envy and resentment.
General
Imprint: |
Liverpool University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Series: |
Writers and Their Work |
Release date: |
June 2006 |
First published: |
November 2006 |
Authors: |
Janet Clare
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 138 x 11mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
144 |
Edition: |
New edition |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-7463-0918-6 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-7463-0918-X |
Barcode: |
9780746309186 |
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