Shakespeare and Interpretation, or What You Will

Shakespeare and Interpretation, or What You Will PDF Author: Brayton Polka
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1644531194
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Brayton Polka takes both a textual and theoretical approach to seven plays of Shakespeare: Macbeth, Othello, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That Ends Well, Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet. He calls upon the Bible and the ideas of major European thinkers, above all, Kierkegaard and Spinoza, to argue that the concept of interpretation that underlies both Shakespeare’s plays and our own lives as moderns is the golden rule of the Bible: the command to love your neighbor as yourself. What you will (the alternative title of Twelfth Night ) thus captures the idea that interpretation is the very act by which we constitute our lives. For it is only in willing what others will—in loving relationships—that we enact a concept of interpretation that is adequate to our lives. Polka argues that it is the aim of Shakespeare, when representing the ancient world in plays like Julius Caesar and Troilus and Cressida, and also in his long narrative poem “The Rape of Lucrece,” to dramatize the fundamental differences between ancient (pagan) values and modern (biblical) values or between what he articulates as contradiction and paradox. The ancients are fatally destroyed by the contradictions of their lives of which they remain ignorant. In contrast, we moderns in the biblical tradition, like those who figure in Shakespeare’s other works, are responsible for addressing and overcoming the contradictions of our lives through living the interpretive paradox of “what you will,” of treating all human beings as our neighbor. Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies, notwithstanding their dramatically different form, share this interpretive framework of paradox. As the author shows in his book, texts without interpretation are blind and interpretation without texts is empty. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Shakespeare and Interpretation, or What You Will

Shakespeare and Interpretation, or What You Will PDF Author: Brayton Polka
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1644531194
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 333

Get Book Here

Book Description
Brayton Polka takes both a textual and theoretical approach to seven plays of Shakespeare: Macbeth, Othello, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That Ends Well, Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet. He calls upon the Bible and the ideas of major European thinkers, above all, Kierkegaard and Spinoza, to argue that the concept of interpretation that underlies both Shakespeare’s plays and our own lives as moderns is the golden rule of the Bible: the command to love your neighbor as yourself. What you will (the alternative title of Twelfth Night ) thus captures the idea that interpretation is the very act by which we constitute our lives. For it is only in willing what others will—in loving relationships—that we enact a concept of interpretation that is adequate to our lives. Polka argues that it is the aim of Shakespeare, when representing the ancient world in plays like Julius Caesar and Troilus and Cressida, and also in his long narrative poem “The Rape of Lucrece,” to dramatize the fundamental differences between ancient (pagan) values and modern (biblical) values or between what he articulates as contradiction and paradox. The ancients are fatally destroyed by the contradictions of their lives of which they remain ignorant. In contrast, we moderns in the biblical tradition, like those who figure in Shakespeare’s other works, are responsible for addressing and overcoming the contradictions of our lives through living the interpretive paradox of “what you will,” of treating all human beings as our neighbor. Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies, notwithstanding their dramatically different form, share this interpretive framework of paradox. As the author shows in his book, texts without interpretation are blind and interpretation without texts is empty. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Shakespeare and Social Theory

Shakespeare and Social Theory PDF Author: BRADD. SHORE
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032017174
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book provides a bridge between Shakespeare Studies and classical social theory, opening up readings of Shakespeare to a new audience outside of literary studies and the humanities. Shakespeare has long been known as a 'great thinker' and this book reads his plays through the lens of an anthropologist, revealing new connections between Shakespeare's plays and the lives we now lead. Close readings of a selection of frequently studied plays - Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar and King Lear - engage with the plays in detail while connecting them with some of the biggest questions we all ask ourselves, about love, friendship, ritual, language, human interactions and the world around us. The plays are examined through various social theories including performance theory, cognitive theory, semiotics, exchange theory and structuralism. The book concludes with a consideration of how "the new astronomy" of his day and developments in optics changed the very idea of "perspective," and shaped Shakespeare's approach to embedding social theory in his dramatic texts. This accessible and engaging book will appeal to those approaching Shakespeare from outside literary studies, but will also be valuable to literature students approaching Shakespeare for the first time, or looking for a new angle on the plays.

This Is Shakespeare

This Is Shakespeare PDF Author: Emma Smith
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1524748552
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
An electrifying new study that investigates the challenges of the Bard’s inconsistencies and flaws, and focuses on revealing—not resolving—the ambiguities of the plays and their changing topicality A genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no other. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality, and literary mastery. A man who wrote like an angel, putting it all so much better than anyone else. Is this Shakespeare? Well, sort of. But it doesn’t tell us the whole truth. So much of what we say about Shakespeare is either not true, or just not relevant. In This Is Shakespeare, Emma Smith—an intellectually, theatrically, and ethically exciting writer—takes us into a world of politicking and copycatting, as we watch Shakespeare emulating the blockbusters of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd (the Spielberg and Tarantino of their day), flirting with and skirting around the cutthroat issues of succession politics, religious upheaval, and technological change. Smith writes in strikingly modern ways about individual agency, privacy, politics, celebrity, and sex. Instead of offering the answers, the Shakespeare she reveals poses awkward questions, always inviting the reader to ponder ambiguities.

Shakespeare's Beehive

Shakespeare's Beehive PDF Author: George Koppelman
Publisher: Axletree Books
ISBN: 0692500324
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
A study of manuscript annotations in a curious copy of John Baret's ALVEARIE, an Elizabethan dictionary published in 1580. This revised and expanded second edition presents new evidence and furthers the argument that the annotations were written by William Shakespeare. This ebook contains text in color, and images. We recommend reading it on a device that displays both.

Shakespeare After All

Shakespeare After All PDF Author: Marjorie Garber
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307490815
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 1010

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Book Description
A brilliant and companionable tour through all thirty-eight plays, Shakespeare After All is the perfect introduction to the bard by one of the country’s foremost authorities on his life and work. Drawing on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over the past thirty years, Marjorie Garber offers passionate and revealing readings of the plays in chronological sequence, from The Two Gentlemen of Verona to The Two Noble Kinsmen. Supremely readable and engaging, and complete with a comprehensive introduction to Shakespeare’s life and times and an extensive bibliography, this magisterial work is an ever-replenishing fount of insight on the most celebrated writer of all time.

Musophilus

Musophilus PDF Author: Samuel Daniel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description


The Annotated Shakespeare

The Annotated Shakespeare PDF Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780517535066
Category : English drama
Languages : en
Pages : 756

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Book Description
"In this authoritative three-volume annotated edition, A. L. Rowse, the noted Elizabethan scholar, sets forth his extraordinary knowledge of William Shakespeare and his time. All Shakespeare's plays and poems are included. His comedies (Volume I), histories, sonnets and other poems (Volume II), and tragedies and romances (Volume III) are photographically reproduced from the highly praised Globe edition of 1904. Dr. Rowse has written a biography of Shakespeare, introductionsto each volume and each play, as well as supervised the annotations and the selection of the 4,200 illustrations. The introductions to the volumes describe the evolution of Shakespeare's art, his approach to comedy and tragedy, his themes and poetic impulse. The introductions to the plays place each in the perspective of the entire range of his work and his milieu. The annotations elucidate not only Shakespeare's language, but the biographical, historical, topical, literary, and symbolic aspects of the plays and poems themselves. The great merit of the annotations is that they help the reader, the actor, the producer, the student to understand and appreciate better the plays of Shakespeare, and to get new meaning and insight from them. The 4,200 illustrations make this also an incomparable visual edition of Shakespeare. They show actual scenes of the plays in photographs as well as in paintings by Delacroix, Gainsborough, Blake, and others, and pictures of historic figures such as Henry VI, Henry IV, and famous Shakespearean performers from the earliest days to the present. In addition, these volumes include set and costume designs, prints, facsimiles of title pages of first editions, and many other pertinent reproductions." -Publisher.

Folger Library, Two Decades of Growth

Folger Library, Two Decades of Growth PDF Author: Louis B. Wright
Publisher: Associated University Presse
ISBN: 9780918016553
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description


Acting in Shakespeare

Acting in Shakespeare PDF Author: Robert Cohen
Publisher: Smith & Kraus
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Acting in Shakespeare helps actors at all levels develop the skills they need to perform in Shakespeare plays. Lessons proceed in carefully graduated stps from simple, single lines to short speeches to more difficult, sophisticated scenes. A wealth of historical information and insightful descriptions of Shakespearean times and players bring Shakespeare's work within the actor's reach.

Shakespeare's Philosophy

Shakespeare's Philosophy PDF Author: Colin McGinn
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061751650
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Shakespeare’s plays are usually studied by literary scholars and historians and the books about him from those perspectives are legion. It is most unusual for a trained philosopher to give us his insight, as Colin McGinn does here, into six of Shakespeare’s greatest plays–A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest. In his brilliant commentary, McGinn explores Shakespeare’s philosophy of life and illustrates how he was influenced, for example, by the essays of Montaigne that were translated into English while Shakespeare was writing. In addition to chapters on the great plays, there are also essays on Shakespeare and gender and his plays from the aspects of psychology, ethics, and tragedy. As McGinn says about Shakespeare, “There is not a sentimental bone in his body. He has the curiosity of a scientist, the judgment of a philosopher, and the soul of a poet.” McGinn relates the ideas in the plays to the later philosophers such as David Hume and the modern commentaries of critics such as Harold Bloom. The book is an exhilarating reading experience, especially for students who are discovering the greatest writer in English.