Although current theory has discredited the idea of a coherent, transcedent self, Shakespeare's characters still make themselves felt as a presence for readers and viewers alike. Confronting this paradox, Christy Desmet explores the role played by rhetoric in fashioning and representing Shakespearean character. She draws on classical and Renaissance texts, as well as on the work of such 20th century critics as Kenneth Burke and Paul de Man, bringing classical, Renaissance, and contemporary rhetoric shapes character within the plays and the way characters are read. She also examines the...
Although current theory has discredited the idea of a coherent, transcedent self, Shakespeare's characters still make themselves felt as a presence fo...
The first life of Edmund Spenser (c.1552-99) was written by the poet himself, in allegorical fictions of poetic ambition, envy and anxiety. Over succeeding centuries, readers have tried to revise and elaborate this life with reference to a handful of surviving records and a wealth of dubiously pertinent historical fact and gossip. The nine essays in this volume explore problems in the received tradition of Spenser's biography and suggest strategies for reinterpreting it to an audience newly sensitive to problems of artistic self-presentation.
The first life of Edmund Spenser (c.1552-99) was written by the poet himself, in allegorical fictions of poetic ambition, envy and anxiety. Over succe...
This book challenges the conventional image of John Dee (1527--1609) as an isolated, eccentric philosopher. Instead, William H. Sherman presents Dee in a fresh context, revealing that he was a well-connected adviser to the academic, courtly, and commercial circles of his day.
This book challenges the conventional image of John Dee (1527--1609) as an isolated, eccentric philosopher. Instead, William H. Sherman presents De...
For 17th-century English intellectuals, the ancient Epicureans and Stoics spoke clearly and forcefully to the kinds of problems they most wanted to solve. Whether seeking to define divinity, kingship, nobility or liberty, to determine how people should live, govern, worship, form societies and interpret nature, or to mediate between pleasure and virtue - early Stuart writers time and again adapted and transformed the rival yet crossbred legacies of Epicureanism and Stoicism.
For 17th-century English intellectuals, the ancient Epicureans and Stoics spoke clearly and forcefully to the kinds of problems they most wanted to so...
Baker (English, Rutgers U.) examines the 16th-century humanist movement in England, tracing the reception of Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516) in relation to it. He argues that humanists of the English Renaissance were themselves reading More's Utopia, Erasmus's Praise of Folly, and other works of Continental humanism in much more politically radical ways than scholars have generally recognized.
Baker (English, Rutgers U.) examines the 16th-century humanist movement in England, tracing the reception of Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516) in relati...
Word against Word offers a new approach to Shakespearean drama, and in particular to Shakespeare's Richard II, through an extended engagement with the Bakhtinian concept of art as a form of social utterance. The book is the first to explore this central Bakhtinian conception and its associated notions of social accent, dialogism, and heteroglossia in the context of drama and of Shakespeare studies.
James R. Siemon begins by examining the variety of accents, discourses, and behaviors that competed for the social space of early modern England. He surveys Shakespeare and his contemporaries,...
Word against Word offers a new approach to Shakespearean drama, and in particular to Shakespeare's Richard II, through an extended engagement with the...
Over half of the plays of the English Renaissance were written collaboratively. This text explores the diverse motivations driving dramatic collaborations, traces the relationships between writers that developed from such energies and analyses their rhetorical effects in individual plays.
Over half of the plays of the English Renaissance were written collaboratively. This text explores the diverse motivations driving dramatic collaborat...
Kerwin (English, U. of Missouri, Columbia) offers five case studies in his consideration of how the field of medicine and its boundaries were affected by culture in the Renaissance, especially drama. Incorporating recent research on medical history and anthropology, he examines portrayals of five groups: drug sellers, women practitioners, surgical
Kerwin (English, U. of Missouri, Columbia) offers five case studies in his consideration of how the field of medicine and its boundaries were affected...
The Book of the Play is a collection of essays that examines early modern drama in the context of book history. Focusing on the publication, marketing, and readership of plays opens fresh perspectives on the relationship between the cultures of print and performance and more broadly between drama and the public sphere. Marta Straznicky's introduction offers a survey of approaches to the history of play reading in this period, and the collection as a whole consolidates recent work in textual, bibliographic, and cultural studies of printed drama.
Individually, the essays advance our...
The Book of the Play is a collection of essays that examines early modern drama in the context of book history. Focusing on the publication, market...
How did Shakespeare and his contemporaries, whose works mark the last quarter century of Elizabeth I's reign as one of the richest moments in all of English literature, regard and represent old age? Was late life seen primarily as a time of withdrawal and preparation for death, as scholars and historians have traditionally maintained? In this book, Christopher Martin examines how, contrary to received impressions, writers and thinkers of the era -- working in the shadow of the kinetic, long-lived queen herself -- contested such prejudicial and dismissive social attitudes.
In late Tudor...
How did Shakespeare and his contemporaries, whose works mark the last quarter century of Elizabeth I's reign as one of the richest moments in all o...
