F.M.L. Thompson (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197262795
- eISBN:
- 9780191753954
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262795.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This book contains the texts of 17 lectures, delivered to the British Academy in 2001. Topics include Chinese Mountain Painting, prosperity and power in the age of Bede and Beowulf, Glyn Dwr, ...
More
This book contains the texts of 17 lectures, delivered to the British Academy in 2001. Topics include Chinese Mountain Painting, prosperity and power in the age of Bede and Beowulf, Glyn Dwr, Shakespeare's sense of an exit, learning, liberty, poetry, social ethics, the House of Savoy during the Risorgimento, the disease of language and the language of disease, Gertrude Stein's differential syntax, Keith Douglas, Common Law's approach to property, Welfare-to-Work and genes.Less
This book contains the texts of 17 lectures, delivered to the British Academy in 2001. Topics include Chinese Mountain Painting, prosperity and power in the age of Bede and Beowulf, Glyn Dwr, Shakespeare's sense of an exit, learning, liberty, poetry, social ethics, the House of Savoy during the Risorgimento, the disease of language and the language of disease, Gertrude Stein's differential syntax, Keith Douglas, Common Law's approach to property, Welfare-to-Work and genes.
Sophie Ratcliffe
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199239870
- eISBN:
- 9780191716799
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239870.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
What happens when we engage with fictional characters? What sort of cognitive activity and affective response does reading about imaginary figures involve? How do our imaginative engagements bear on ...
More
What happens when we engage with fictional characters? What sort of cognitive activity and affective response does reading about imaginary figures involve? How do our imaginative engagements bear on our actions in the wider world? Moving between literary and philosophical analysis, this book considers the ways in which readers feel when they read, and how they understand ideas of feeling. By using poetic rewritings of The Tempest as its focus, this book broaches questions about fictional belief, morality, and the dynamics between readers, writers, and fictional characters. The book challenges conventionally accepted ideas of literary identification. It questions whether this activity is necessarily central to our reading practices, and scrutinises why identification has been seen as so important to some liberal humanist theories of literary engagement. Individual chapters on Robert Browning, W. H. Auden, and Samuel Beckett, who all drew on Shakespeare's late play, offer new readings of some major works, while the book's epilogue tackles questions of contemporary sympathy.Less
What happens when we engage with fictional characters? What sort of cognitive activity and affective response does reading about imaginary figures involve? How do our imaginative engagements bear on our actions in the wider world? Moving between literary and philosophical analysis, this book considers the ways in which readers feel when they read, and how they understand ideas of feeling. By using poetic rewritings of The Tempest as its focus, this book broaches questions about fictional belief, morality, and the dynamics between readers, writers, and fictional characters. The book challenges conventionally accepted ideas of literary identification. It questions whether this activity is necessarily central to our reading practices, and scrutinises why identification has been seen as so important to some liberal humanist theories of literary engagement. Individual chapters on Robert Browning, W. H. Auden, and Samuel Beckett, who all drew on Shakespeare's late play, offer new readings of some major works, while the book's epilogue tackles questions of contemporary sympathy.
P. J. Marshall (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263518
- eISBN:
- 9780191734021
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263518.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the ...
More
This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the future pensions crisis (a lecture given by the Governor of the Bank of England), Britain's universities, and Pan-Islam. There are studies of Shakespeare, Pope, Montaigne, Robert Graves, and William Faulkner. And there are lectures on the Inquisition, empires in history, and the journey towards spiritual fulfillment.Less
This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the future pensions crisis (a lecture given by the Governor of the Bank of England), Britain's universities, and Pan-Islam. There are studies of Shakespeare, Pope, Montaigne, Robert Graves, and William Faulkner. And there are lectures on the Inquisition, empires in history, and the journey towards spiritual fulfillment.
Ron Johnston (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264584
- eISBN:
- 9780191734069
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264584.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This volume contains ten lectures in the humanities and social sciences delivered at the British Academy in 2008. The lectures cover topics ranging from an exploration of the relationship between ...
More
This volume contains ten lectures in the humanities and social sciences delivered at the British Academy in 2008. The lectures cover topics ranging from an exploration of the relationship between reason and identity, to an examination of social integration as the world becomes a more diverse place, to a consideration of the works of four great literary figures: King Alfred, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and W. H. Auden.Less
This volume contains ten lectures in the humanities and social sciences delivered at the British Academy in 2008. The lectures cover topics ranging from an exploration of the relationship between reason and identity, to an examination of social integration as the world becomes a more diverse place, to a consideration of the works of four great literary figures: King Alfred, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and W. H. Auden.
Hugh Grady
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183228
- eISBN:
- 9780191673962
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183228.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Criticism/Theory
This is a major study of the history of Shakespeare criticism in the modern era. Every epoch recreates its classic icons — and for literary culture none is more central nor more protean than ...
More
This is a major study of the history of Shakespeare criticism in the modern era. Every epoch recreates its classic icons — and for literary culture none is more central nor more protean than Shakespeare. Even though finding the authentic Shakespeare has been a goal of scholarship since the 18th century, he has always been constructed as a contemporary author. This book charts the construction of Shakespeare as a 20th-century Modernist text by redirecting ‘new historicist’ methods to an investigation of the social roots of contemporary Shakespeare criticism itself. Beginning with the formation of professionalism as an ideology in the Victorian age, this book describes the widespread attempts to save the values of the culturalist tradition, in reformulated ‘Modernist’ guise, from the threat of professionalist positivism in modernized universities. The tension between professionalism and culturalism gave rise to the Modernist Shakespeare of G. Wilson Knight, E. M. W. Tillyard, and American and British New Critics, and still conditions the postmodernist Shakespearean criticism of contemporary feminists, deconstructors, and ‘new historicists’.Less
This is a major study of the history of Shakespeare criticism in the modern era. Every epoch recreates its classic icons — and for literary culture none is more central nor more protean than Shakespeare. Even though finding the authentic Shakespeare has been a goal of scholarship since the 18th century, he has always been constructed as a contemporary author. This book charts the construction of Shakespeare as a 20th-century Modernist text by redirecting ‘new historicist’ methods to an investigation of the social roots of contemporary Shakespeare criticism itself. Beginning with the formation of professionalism as an ideology in the Victorian age, this book describes the widespread attempts to save the values of the culturalist tradition, in reformulated ‘Modernist’ guise, from the threat of professionalist positivism in modernized universities. The tension between professionalism and culturalism gave rise to the Modernist Shakespeare of G. Wilson Knight, E. M. W. Tillyard, and American and British New Critics, and still conditions the postmodernist Shakespearean criticism of contemporary feminists, deconstructors, and ‘new historicists’.
Alice Fox
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129882
- eISBN:
- 9780191671876
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129882.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This book examines the profound effect, on a major critic and novelist of the twentieth century, of the period of English literature's greatest glory, the Renaissance. Beginning in the sixteenth ...
More
This book examines the profound effect, on a major critic and novelist of the twentieth century, of the period of English literature's greatest glory, the Renaissance. Beginning in the sixteenth century, with the poems and plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and with prose writings such as Hakluyt's Voyages, and continuing through the great lyric poets of the seventeenth century, the Renaissance influenced every aspect of Virginia Woolf's work. All her available writing – letters, diaries, reading notes, drafts of essays, novels, and feminist polemic – are explored in this study of Virginia Woolf's varied reactions to the period, and its impact on her fiction and criticism. Each of the novels, in particular, is shown to integrate some element of Renaissance literature in its language, characterization, and often structure, enriching the fiction.Less
This book examines the profound effect, on a major critic and novelist of the twentieth century, of the period of English literature's greatest glory, the Renaissance. Beginning in the sixteenth century, with the poems and plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and with prose writings such as Hakluyt's Voyages, and continuing through the great lyric poets of the seventeenth century, the Renaissance influenced every aspect of Virginia Woolf's work. All her available writing – letters, diaries, reading notes, drafts of essays, novels, and feminist polemic – are explored in this study of Virginia Woolf's varied reactions to the period, and its impact on her fiction and criticism. Each of the novels, in particular, is shown to integrate some element of Renaissance literature in its language, characterization, and often structure, enriching the fiction.
Howard Felperin
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122654
- eISBN:
- 9780191671517
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122654.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
The critical school of ‘new historicism’ is very much at the centre of contemporary debates on literary studies and theory. Much ‘new historicist’ writing has focused ...
More
The critical school of ‘new historicism’ is very much at the centre of contemporary debates on literary studies and theory. Much ‘new historicist’ writing has focused on Renaissance texts, and this book is a timely exploration of that connection and its significance for ‘English’ as a whole. This book subjects many of the most challenging claims of ‘new historicism’ to rigorous analysis, distinguishes sharply between its American and British versions, and probes the causes and consequences of its politicization of literary studies. The philosophical as well as political issues central to current debates are examined and the uses served by the canonical texts at their centre analysed within a broad cultural and historical perspective. This searching reconsideration of contemporary critical theory and practice yields fresh readings of a number of classic texts — including those of William Shakespeare's Sonnets, Thomas More's Utopia, John Donne's poetry, and Robert Conrad's Heart of Darkness — as well as a deepened understanding of the complex and changing functions of the canon itself.Less
The critical school of ‘new historicism’ is very much at the centre of contemporary debates on literary studies and theory. Much ‘new historicist’ writing has focused on Renaissance texts, and this book is a timely exploration of that connection and its significance for ‘English’ as a whole. This book subjects many of the most challenging claims of ‘new historicism’ to rigorous analysis, distinguishes sharply between its American and British versions, and probes the causes and consequences of its politicization of literary studies. The philosophical as well as political issues central to current debates are examined and the uses served by the canonical texts at their centre analysed within a broad cultural and historical perspective. This searching reconsideration of contemporary critical theory and practice yields fresh readings of a number of classic texts — including those of William Shakespeare's Sonnets, Thomas More's Utopia, John Donne's poetry, and Robert Conrad's Heart of Darkness — as well as a deepened understanding of the complex and changing functions of the canon itself.
Robert S. Miola
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112648
- eISBN:
- 9780191670831
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112648.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This book charts the influence of Seneca — both as specific text and inherited tradition — through an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedies. Discerning patterns in previously attested borrowings and ...
More
This book charts the influence of Seneca — both as specific text and inherited tradition — through an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedies. Discerning patterns in previously attested borrowings and discovering new indebtedness, it presents an integrated and comprehensive assessment. Familiar methods of source study and an understanding of intertextuality are employed to re-evaluate the much maligned Seneca in the light of his Greek antecedents, Renaissance translations and commentaries, and dramatic adaptations, especially those of Chapman, Jonson, Marston, Garnier, Cinthio, and Dolce. Three broad categories organize the discussion — Senecan revenge, tyranny, and furore — and each is illustrated by an earlier and later Shakespearean tragedy. The author keeps in view Shakespeare's eclecticism, his habit of combining disparate sources and conventions, as well as the rich history of literary criticism and theatrical interpretation. The book concludes by discussing Seneca's presence in Renaissance comedy and, more important, in the hybrid genre, tragicomedy.Less
This book charts the influence of Seneca — both as specific text and inherited tradition — through an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedies. Discerning patterns in previously attested borrowings and discovering new indebtedness, it presents an integrated and comprehensive assessment. Familiar methods of source study and an understanding of intertextuality are employed to re-evaluate the much maligned Seneca in the light of his Greek antecedents, Renaissance translations and commentaries, and dramatic adaptations, especially those of Chapman, Jonson, Marston, Garnier, Cinthio, and Dolce. Three broad categories organize the discussion — Senecan revenge, tyranny, and furore — and each is illustrated by an earlier and later Shakespearean tragedy. The author keeps in view Shakespeare's eclecticism, his habit of combining disparate sources and conventions, as well as the rich history of literary criticism and theatrical interpretation. The book concludes by discussing Seneca's presence in Renaissance comedy and, more important, in the hybrid genre, tragicomedy.
Harold Fisch
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184898
- eISBN:
- 9780191674372
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184898.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, Shakespeare Studies
In this book of the poetics of influence, the indebtedness of Shakespeare, Milton, and Blake to a common source, namely the Bible, becomes a powerful tool for displaying three fundamentally different ...
More
In this book of the poetics of influence, the indebtedness of Shakespeare, Milton, and Blake to a common source, namely the Bible, becomes a powerful tool for displaying three fundamentally different poetic options as well as three different ways of dealing with a conflict central to western culture. In fresh and original discussions of Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, and King Lear, the author discerns what he terms the metagon: not the struggle between the characters on the stage, but a struggle for the control of the play between biblical and non-biblical modes of imagining. Milton seems more single-minded in his reliance on biblical sources, yet from his analysis of Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes, the author concludes that there are unresolved contradictions, both aesthetic and theological, which threaten the coherence and balance of these poems as well. Blake in his turn perceived these contradictions in the work of his predecessors, condemning both Shakespeare and Milton for allowing their writing to be curbed by Greek and Latin models and claiming for himself a more authentic inspiration — that of ‘the Sublime of the Bible’. But Blake’s marvellous achievements in the sublime mode, as for instance in his Illustrations to Job, often reverse the direction of his biblical source, replacing dialogue with monologue.Less
In this book of the poetics of influence, the indebtedness of Shakespeare, Milton, and Blake to a common source, namely the Bible, becomes a powerful tool for displaying three fundamentally different poetic options as well as three different ways of dealing with a conflict central to western culture. In fresh and original discussions of Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, and King Lear, the author discerns what he terms the metagon: not the struggle between the characters on the stage, but a struggle for the control of the play between biblical and non-biblical modes of imagining. Milton seems more single-minded in his reliance on biblical sources, yet from his analysis of Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes, the author concludes that there are unresolved contradictions, both aesthetic and theological, which threaten the coherence and balance of these poems as well. Blake in his turn perceived these contradictions in the work of his predecessors, condemning both Shakespeare and Milton for allowing their writing to be curbed by Greek and Latin models and claiming for himself a more authentic inspiration — that of ‘the Sublime of the Bible’. But Blake’s marvellous achievements in the sublime mode, as for instance in his Illustrations to Job, often reverse the direction of his biblical source, replacing dialogue with monologue.
Roger Warren
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128779
- eISBN:
- 9780191671692
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128779.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
Shakespeare's late plays – Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest – have provoked a great deal of interest in the modern theatre. In this book, the author draws upon extensive ...
More
Shakespeare's late plays – Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest – have provoked a great deal of interest in the modern theatre. In this book, the author draws upon extensive theatrical experience of the plays in rehearsal and performance, particularly in two special seasons: at Stratford, Ontario in 1986 and at the National Theatre in 1988 under the direction of Sir Peter Hall. This book describes in detail how the rehearsal process focuses the principal theatrical issues of Shakespeare's late plays.Less
Shakespeare's late plays – Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest – have provoked a great deal of interest in the modern theatre. In this book, the author draws upon extensive theatrical experience of the plays in rehearsal and performance, particularly in two special seasons: at Stratford, Ontario in 1986 and at the National Theatre in 1988 under the direction of Sir Peter Hall. This book describes in detail how the rehearsal process focuses the principal theatrical issues of Shakespeare's late plays.
John Jones
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186885
- eISBN:
- 9780191674594
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186885.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
It has been established by textual specialists, and is now becoming widely accepted, that Shakespeare revised many of his plays, including some of the most celebrated. But how were the great ...
More
It has been established by textual specialists, and is now becoming widely accepted, that Shakespeare revised many of his plays, including some of the most celebrated. But how were the great tragedies altered and with what effect? This book looks at the implications of Shakespeare's revisions for the reader and spectator alike and shows the playwright getting to grips with the problems of characterization and scene formation in such plays as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Troilus and Cressida. The book carries its argument down, as it puts it, to the very tip of Shakespeare's quill pen. The book assesses recent textual scholarship on Shakespeare's revisions and illuminates the artistic impact of the revised texts and their importance for our understanding of each play's moral and metaphysical foundations.Less
It has been established by textual specialists, and is now becoming widely accepted, that Shakespeare revised many of his plays, including some of the most celebrated. But how were the great tragedies altered and with what effect? This book looks at the implications of Shakespeare's revisions for the reader and spectator alike and shows the playwright getting to grips with the problems of characterization and scene formation in such plays as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Troilus and Cressida. The book carries its argument down, as it puts it, to the very tip of Shakespeare's quill pen. The book assesses recent textual scholarship on Shakespeare's revisions and illuminates the artistic impact of the revised texts and their importance for our understanding of each play's moral and metaphysical foundations.
David Johnson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183150
- eISBN:
- 9780191673955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183150.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This book is a study of the teaching and criticism of William Shakespeare in South Africa from the early nineteenth century to the present day, covering a number of key historical moments in the ...
More
This book is a study of the teaching and criticism of William Shakespeare in South Africa from the early nineteenth century to the present day, covering a number of key historical moments in the interpretation of Shakespeare. It contributes to the well-established debate focused on the ‘neo-colonial’ use of ‘English literature’ and to the more recent interest in the conditions of cultural assimilation. The wide range of source materials used for this book – including Cape Department of Education examination papers and exam reports, as well as newspaper articles and essays – provides detailed research into the formulation of a literary education policy in South Africa. The insights into changes in thinking about pedagogic and cultural issues in the South African colonial ‘periphery’ and into the values associated with those changes makes for a significant resource for South African cultural studies.Less
This book is a study of the teaching and criticism of William Shakespeare in South Africa from the early nineteenth century to the present day, covering a number of key historical moments in the interpretation of Shakespeare. It contributes to the well-established debate focused on the ‘neo-colonial’ use of ‘English literature’ and to the more recent interest in the conditions of cultural assimilation. The wide range of source materials used for this book – including Cape Department of Education examination papers and exam reports, as well as newspaper articles and essays – provides detailed research into the formulation of a literary education policy in South Africa. The insights into changes in thinking about pedagogic and cultural issues in the South African colonial ‘periphery’ and into the values associated with those changes makes for a significant resource for South African cultural studies.
John Batchelor (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182894
- eISBN:
- 9780191673917
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182894.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Is literary biography so widely read for popular, ‘prurient’ reasons, or for ‘reputable’ intellectual reasons? Is it of interest only in so far as it illuminates a writer's work? How much can we know ...
More
Is literary biography so widely read for popular, ‘prurient’ reasons, or for ‘reputable’ intellectual reasons? Is it of interest only in so far as it illuminates a writer's work? How much can we know about a life, such as Shakespeare's, where the documentation is so scanty? In this revealing new work seventeen leading critics and professional biographers discuss a broad range of issues, including the relationships between biography and autobiography, the problems genre poses, and the literary biographer at work, together with authors, such as Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Huxley, Conrad, and Rochester.Less
Is literary biography so widely read for popular, ‘prurient’ reasons, or for ‘reputable’ intellectual reasons? Is it of interest only in so far as it illuminates a writer's work? How much can we know about a life, such as Shakespeare's, where the documentation is so scanty? In this revealing new work seventeen leading critics and professional biographers discuss a broad range of issues, including the relationships between biography and autobiography, the problems genre poses, and the literary biographer at work, together with authors, such as Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Huxley, Conrad, and Rochester.
Margreta De Grazia
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117780
- eISBN:
- 9780191671067
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This book challenges traditional Shakespeare scholarship through a study of its textual primacy in the late eighteenth century. The book's examination of earlier treatments demonstrates that concepts ...
More
This book challenges traditional Shakespeare scholarship through a study of its textual primacy in the late eighteenth century. The book's examination of earlier treatments demonstrates that concepts now basic to Shakespeare studies were once largely irrelevant. Only with Edmond Malone's 1790 Shakespeare edition do such criteria as authenticity, historical periodisation, factual biography, chronological development, and in-depth readings become dominant. However, their emergence then must not be seen as the overdue installation of proper scholarly and literary procedures, but rather as a specific historical response to the problem the Shakespeare corpus has posed since its definition by the 1623 Folio. The remarkable efficacy of Malone's apparatus over the past two hundred years testifies not to its ‘truth’, but rather to its endorsement of a continuing Enlightenment epistemology irreconcilable with the past linguistic and mechanical practices it purports accurately to reproduce. This challenging book has both practical and theoretical implications for Shakespeare studies in the 1990s and beyond.Less
This book challenges traditional Shakespeare scholarship through a study of its textual primacy in the late eighteenth century. The book's examination of earlier treatments demonstrates that concepts now basic to Shakespeare studies were once largely irrelevant. Only with Edmond Malone's 1790 Shakespeare edition do such criteria as authenticity, historical periodisation, factual biography, chronological development, and in-depth readings become dominant. However, their emergence then must not be seen as the overdue installation of proper scholarly and literary procedures, but rather as a specific historical response to the problem the Shakespeare corpus has posed since its definition by the 1623 Folio. The remarkable efficacy of Malone's apparatus over the past two hundred years testifies not to its ‘truth’, but rather to its endorsement of a continuing Enlightenment epistemology irreconcilable with the past linguistic and mechanical practices it purports accurately to reproduce. This challenging book has both practical and theoretical implications for Shakespeare studies in the 1990s and beyond.
Hugh Grady
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198130048
- eISBN:
- 9780191671906
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198130048.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
William Shakespeare was neither a Royalist defender of order and hierarchy nor a consistently radical champion of social equality, but rather simultaneously radical ...
More
William Shakespeare was neither a Royalist defender of order and hierarchy nor a consistently radical champion of social equality, but rather simultaneously radical and conservative as a critic of emerging forms of modernity. This book argues that Shakespeare's social criticism in fact often parallels that of critics of modernity from our own Postmodernist era: that the broad analysis of modernity produced by Karl Marx, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Michel Foucault, and others can serve as a productive enabling representation and critique of the emerging modernity represented by the image in Troilus and Cressida of ‘an universal wolf’ of appetite, power, and will. The readings in this book demonstrate Shakespeare's keen interest in what twentieth-century theory has called ‘reification’ — a term that designates social systems created by human societies, but that confronts those societies as operating beyond human control, according to an autonomous ‘systems’ logic — in nascent mercantile capitalism, in power-oriented Machiavellian politics, and in the scientistic, value-free rationality which Horkheimer and Adorno call ‘instrumental reason’.Less
William Shakespeare was neither a Royalist defender of order and hierarchy nor a consistently radical champion of social equality, but rather simultaneously radical and conservative as a critic of emerging forms of modernity. This book argues that Shakespeare's social criticism in fact often parallels that of critics of modernity from our own Postmodernist era: that the broad analysis of modernity produced by Karl Marx, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Michel Foucault, and others can serve as a productive enabling representation and critique of the emerging modernity represented by the image in Troilus and Cressida of ‘an universal wolf’ of appetite, power, and will. The readings in this book demonstrate Shakespeare's keen interest in what twentieth-century theory has called ‘reification’ — a term that designates social systems created by human societies, but that confronts those societies as operating beyond human control, according to an autonomous ‘systems’ logic — in nascent mercantile capitalism, in power-oriented Machiavellian politics, and in the scientistic, value-free rationality which Horkheimer and Adorno call ‘instrumental reason’.
Stanley Wells
- Published in print:
- 1984
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129349
- eISBN:
- 9780191671777
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129349.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
Should Shakespeare's plays be presented in the spelling and punctuation of the early editions, or should these features of the text be modernized? What are the advantages and disadvantages of either ...
More
Should Shakespeare's plays be presented in the spelling and punctuation of the early editions, or should these features of the text be modernized? What are the advantages and disadvantages of either procedure? When error is suspected in these texts, what kinds of correction can be attempted? How can Shakespeare's plays, written for the theatre and first printed with inadequate stage directions, best be presented for the reader? When texts survive in two versions, one close to the point of composition, the other reflecting performance by Shakespeare's company, which should the editor prefer? Can fresh thought about a play's staging affect its text? These are among the questions raised and discussed by this book. Welcoming the major advances in the bibliographical study of Shakespeare in recent years, the book is concerned with the practical problems of putting the result of such study into editorial effect. In a detailed investigation of the relationship between dialogue and stage action in Act One of Titus Andronicus, the book brings the reader close to Shakespeare in the act of creation; a conjectured reconstruction of Shakespeare's first draft of the Act is included.Less
Should Shakespeare's plays be presented in the spelling and punctuation of the early editions, or should these features of the text be modernized? What are the advantages and disadvantages of either procedure? When error is suspected in these texts, what kinds of correction can be attempted? How can Shakespeare's plays, written for the theatre and first printed with inadequate stage directions, best be presented for the reader? When texts survive in two versions, one close to the point of composition, the other reflecting performance by Shakespeare's company, which should the editor prefer? Can fresh thought about a play's staging affect its text? These are among the questions raised and discussed by this book. Welcoming the major advances in the bibliographical study of Shakespeare in recent years, the book is concerned with the practical problems of putting the result of such study into editorial effect. In a detailed investigation of the relationship between dialogue and stage action in Act One of Titus Andronicus, the book brings the reader close to Shakespeare in the act of creation; a conjectured reconstruction of Shakespeare's first draft of the Act is included.
Simon Palfrey and Tiffany Stern
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199272051
- eISBN:
- 9780191699580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272051.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter examines various ways in which Shakespeare exploits the limitations and possibilities of the cue, and in particular how cues are used to orchestrate performance and contribute to ...
More
This chapter examines various ways in which Shakespeare exploits the limitations and possibilities of the cue, and in particular how cues are used to orchestrate performance and contribute to characterization. Shakespeare repeatedly exploits the potential opened up by the ‘shared’ cue for pressing upon that tender and sometimes explosive point where two minds meet — or fail to meet. The cue does not necessarily retain a fixed meaning for the cued actor: the cue can suggest one thing in private rehearsal, but reveal something quite different in public performance. In all of these ways the cue is a fundamental tool of Shakespearean characterization, as well as a vehicle and epitome of the dynamic ‘dramatic moment’.Less
This chapter examines various ways in which Shakespeare exploits the limitations and possibilities of the cue, and in particular how cues are used to orchestrate performance and contribute to characterization. Shakespeare repeatedly exploits the potential opened up by the ‘shared’ cue for pressing upon that tender and sometimes explosive point where two minds meet — or fail to meet. The cue does not necessarily retain a fixed meaning for the cued actor: the cue can suggest one thing in private rehearsal, but reveal something quite different in public performance. In all of these ways the cue is a fundamental tool of Shakespearean characterization, as well as a vehicle and epitome of the dynamic ‘dramatic moment’.
David Johnson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183150
- eISBN:
- 9780191673955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183150.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
There remains much to struggle for, much to be angry about, in the institutions and practices of English studies in post-1994 South Africa. Most urgently, the question of access to the study of ...
More
There remains much to struggle for, much to be angry about, in the institutions and practices of English studies in post-1994 South Africa. Most urgently, the question of access to the study of English must be addressed. To continue gazing to Oxbridge and Columbia for intellectual inspiration, and to continue teaching William Shakespeare as before to relatively small numbers of students, seems particularly unlikely to make a positive impression on entrenched patterns of exclusion. In the context of English studies, this would mean: continuing outside state education policy forums and identifying the authoritarian tropes of new canons, syllabuses, and critical approaches; or seeking control of the new centres of power in order to try and install educational practices that are more democratic and empowering.Less
There remains much to struggle for, much to be angry about, in the institutions and practices of English studies in post-1994 South Africa. Most urgently, the question of access to the study of English must be addressed. To continue gazing to Oxbridge and Columbia for intellectual inspiration, and to continue teaching William Shakespeare as before to relatively small numbers of students, seems particularly unlikely to make a positive impression on entrenched patterns of exclusion. In the context of English studies, this would mean: continuing outside state education policy forums and identifying the authoritarian tropes of new canons, syllabuses, and critical approaches; or seeking control of the new centres of power in order to try and install educational practices that are more democratic and empowering.
Stanley Wells
- Published in print:
- 1984
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129349
- eISBN:
- 9780191671777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129349.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
The four chapters of this book are concerned with the presentation as well as with the establishing of Shakespeare's text. The first two look at verbal details of that text, the second two at matters ...
More
The four chapters of this book are concerned with the presentation as well as with the establishing of Shakespeare's text. The first two look at verbal details of that text, the second two at matters of staging. They address questions such as the justification for modernizing the spelling and punctuation of the early printings of the plays, the need to re-examine traditional emendations, and the propriety and techniques of adding to and altering their original stage directions. Many editions of Shakespeare are now available to the modern reader. But many people keep thinking hard about Shakespeare and, more generally, about various aspects of the time in which he lived. There are new editions that are in modern spelling: there was no edition of the complete works in their original spelling and punctuation.Less
The four chapters of this book are concerned with the presentation as well as with the establishing of Shakespeare's text. The first two look at verbal details of that text, the second two at matters of staging. They address questions such as the justification for modernizing the spelling and punctuation of the early printings of the plays, the need to re-examine traditional emendations, and the propriety and techniques of adding to and altering their original stage directions. Many editions of Shakespeare are now available to the modern reader. But many people keep thinking hard about Shakespeare and, more generally, about various aspects of the time in which he lived. There are new editions that are in modern spelling: there was no edition of the complete works in their original spelling and punctuation.
Howard Erskine-Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117315
- eISBN:
- 9780191670916
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117315.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. The poetic texts that have been discussed constitute a prolonged, pragmatic, and religious meditation on the nature and conditions of kingship. We have ...
More
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. The poetic texts that have been discussed constitute a prolonged, pragmatic, and religious meditation on the nature and conditions of kingship. We have seen a politique fascination with republican polities; Milton and some like him committed themselves to a kingless commonwealth in reaction against the Stuart monarchy and the prospect of its restoration. But just as Marvell's ‘republican’ ‘Horatian Ode’ is dominated by two monarchical figures, so the concept of kingship was ever present even in the absence of a king. Whether seen as an opportunity, an ideal, or a warning, kingship is the one dominant landmark in the political terrain between the late 16th and the later 17th centuries.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. The poetic texts that have been discussed constitute a prolonged, pragmatic, and religious meditation on the nature and conditions of kingship. We have seen a politique fascination with republican polities; Milton and some like him committed themselves to a kingless commonwealth in reaction against the Stuart monarchy and the prospect of its restoration. But just as Marvell's ‘republican’ ‘Horatian Ode’ is dominated by two monarchical figures, so the concept of kingship was ever present even in the absence of a king. Whether seen as an opportunity, an ideal, or a warning, kingship is the one dominant landmark in the political terrain between the late 16th and the later 17th centuries.
