This book focuses on the two plays of Shakespeare that have
generally contended for the title of 'greatest' among his works.
Hamlet remained a focal point of reference until about 1960, when
it was displaced by King Lear, a play which at the same time ceased
to be perceived as a play of redemption and became a play of
despair. Foakes attempts to explain these shifts by analysing the
reception of the plays since about 1800, an analysis which
necessarily engages with the politics of the plays and the politics
of criticism. Recent critical theorising has destabilised the texts
and undermined the notion of 'greatness' or any consideration of
the plays as works of art. Foakes takes issue with such theories
and reconsiders textual revisions, in order to argue for the
integrity of the plays as reading texts, and to recover a flexible
sense of their artistry in relation to meaning. The book will be of
interest to scholars and students of Shakespeare and to
theatre-goers.
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