This New Casebook offers a selection of contemporary readings of Shakespeare's "problem plays," All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida, reflecting the diversity of late twentieth-century theory and the controversy that continues to be generated by these plays. Issues discussed include the meaning of the term "problem play," their historical context, political and cultural significance, and issues of staging and theater history.

The last decade has seen a revival of interest in John Ford and especially 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, his tragedy of religious scepticism, incestuous love, and revenge. This text in particular has provided a focus for scholarship as well as being the subject of a number of major theatrical productions.
Simon Barker guides the reader through the full range of previous interpretations of the play; moving from an overview of traditional readings he goes on to enlarge upon new questions that have arisen as a consequence of critical and cultural theory.

This anthology offers a full introduction to Renaissance theatre in its historical and political context, along with newly edited and thoroughly annotated texts of the following plays:
* The Spanish Tragedy (Thomas Kyd)
* Arden of Faversham (Anon.)
* Edward II (Christopher Marlowe)
* A Woman Killed with Kindness (Thomas Heywood)
* The Tragedy of Mariam (Elizabeth Cary)
* The Masque of Blackness (Ben Jonson)
* The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Francis Beaumont)
* Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (Ben...

This original study explores a vital aspect of early modern cultural history: the way that warfare is represented in the theatre of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The book contrasts the Tudor and Stuart prose that called for the establishment of a standing army in the name of nation, discipline and subjectivity, and the drama of the period that invited critique of this imperative. Barker examines contemporary dramatic texts both for their radical position on war and, in the case of the later drama, for their subversive commentary on an emerging idealisation of Shakespeare and his...

Literature as History presents a selection of specially commissioned essays by a range of key contemporary thinkers on the interdisciplinary study of literature and history. The unifying theme is the interrelationship between literary / cultural production and its historical moment. The essays in the collection are astute and exciting in terms of their engagement with ever-changing developments in critical and theoretical practice while retaining an invaluable focus on familiar and engaging texts and authors. The contributors offer a reappraisal of the nature of literary studies today,...