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Shakespearean Issues - Agency, Skepticism, and Other Puzzles (Hardcover)
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Shakespearean Issues - Agency, Skepticism, and Other Puzzles (Hardcover)
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In Shakespearean Issues, Richard Strier has written a set of linked
essays bound by a learned view of how to think about
Shakespeare’s plays and also how to write literary criticism on
them. The essays vary in their foci—from dealing with passages
and key lines to dealing with whole plays, and to dealing with
multiple plays in thematic conversation with each other. Strier
treats the political, social, and philosophical themes of
Shakespeare’s plays through recursive and revisionary close
reading, revisiting plays from different angles and often
contravening prevailing views. Part I focuses on characters.
Moments of bad faith, of unconscious self-revelation, and of
semi-conscious self-revelation are analyzed, along with the problem
of describing characters psychologically and ethically. In an essay
on “Happy Hamlet,” the famous melancholy of the prince is
questioned, as is the villainy of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
while another essay asks the reader to reconsider moral judgments
and negative assessments of characters who may be flawed but do not
seem obviously wicked, such as Edgar and Gloucester in King Lear.
Part II moves to systems, arguing that Henry IV, Measure for
Measure, and The Merchant of Venice raise doubts about fundamental
features of legal systems, such as impartiality, punishments, and
respect for contracts. Strier reveals King Lear’s radicalism,
analyzing its concentration on poverty and its insistence on the
existence and legitimacy of a material substratum to human life.
Essays on The Tempest offer original takes on the play’s
presentation of coercive power, of civilization and its
discontents, and of humanist ideals. Part III turns to religious
and epistemological beliefs, with Strier challenging prevailing
views of Shakespeare’s relation to both. A culminating reading
sees The Winter’s Tale as ultimately affirming the mind’s
capacities, and as finding a place for something like religion
within the world. Anyone interested in Shakespeare’s plays will
find Shakespearean Issues bracing and thought-provoking.
General
Imprint: |
University of PennsylvaniaPress
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
August 2022 |
Authors: |
Richard Strier
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Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Paper over boards
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Pages: |
368 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-5128-2321-9 |
Categories: |
Books
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LSN: |
1-5128-2321-X |
Barcode: |
9781512823219 |
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