Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes film stills from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis The New Kittredge ShakespeareCymbelineoffers the text of the play, and glosses, as prepared by William Kittredge for hisComplete Works of William Shakespeare. Hannah C. Wojciehowski''s performance notes and additional textual notes offer readers a streamlined reading experience aimed at helping them understand the play and envision how key "interpretive junctures" in it have been, and might yet be, performed on stage or screen. Wojciehowski''s Introduction brilliantly illuminates the play''s plot and lyricism as well as its treatment in recent stage and screen productions--including Michael Almereyda''sCymbeline(2014). In "How to ReadCymbelineas Performance" an interview with James Loehlin, Director of the Shakespeare at Winedale program at the University of Texas, offers practical reflections on making the leap from reading this challenging play to imagining its performance. Notes on Names, Pronunciation, and Language; ACymbelineTimeline; Topics for Discussion and Further Study; and Bibliography and Filmography are also included.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishmentsall of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. The plays in the New Kittredge Shakespeare series retain their original Kittredge notes and introductions, changed or augmented only when some modernization seems necessary. These new editions also include introductory essays by contemporary editors, notes on the plays as they have been performed on stage and film, and additional student materials. These plays are being made available by Focus Publishing with the permission of the Kittredge heirs.

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Book Synopsis George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes film stills from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes film stills from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishmentsall of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. The plays in the New Kittredge Shakespeare series retain the original Kittredge notes and introductions, changed or augmented only when some modernization seems necessary. These new editions also include introductory essays by contemporary editors, notes on the plays as they have been performed on stage and film, and additional student materials. These plays are being made available by Focus with the permission of the Kittredge heirs.

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Book SynopsisJan Blits'' edition represents something new among editions ofJulius Caesar. In addition to textual glosses and explanatory notes focused on the rhetorical, historical, and political contexts of the speeches, it includes a wide array of quotations and citations from writers of classical antiquity chosen to illuminate passages of special pertinence to the Roman world represented in the play. Highlighting Shakespeare''s significance as a political thinker, it also demonstrates his deep understanding of Roman antiquity, its competing worldviews, and the demise of its Republic. Intended for a broad readership, the edition also includes a Preface, Introduction, Bibliography, and a topical Index.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge''s perceptive editions have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishmentsall of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. The plays in the New Kittredge Shakespeare series retain the original Kittredge notes and introductions, changed or augmented only when some modernization seems necessary. These new editions also include introductory essays by contemporary editors, notes on the plays as they have been performed on stage and film, and additional student materials.

Read more less

Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge''s perceptive editions have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishmentsall of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. The plays in the New Kittredge Shakespeare series retain the original Kittredge notes and introductions, changed or augmented only when some modernization seems necessary. These new editions also include introductory essays by contemporary editors, notes on the plays as they have been performed on stage and film, and additional student materials.

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Book SynopsisLike previous editions in the New Kittredge Shakespeare series, this edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen takes George Lyman Kittredge''stext as its base, though in this case one that has been extensively edited by Jim Casey in the light of more recent editions. As Kittredge never published a free-standing edition of the play, all annotations and performance notes are Casey''s and have been prepared specifically for this edition. In addition to other standard features of New Kittredge Shakespeare editionsTopics for Discussion and Further Study, a timeline, and a discussion of reading the play as performanceit offers a splendid new Introduction by Casey focusing on the themes and recent production history of this recently revived play of Shakespeare and Fletcher''s.

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Book SynopsisUnusual among Shakespeare's plays in that it drew theatrical responses from the outset, The Taming of the Shrew continues to inspire adaptations and interpretations that respond to its fascinating, if provocative, representation of a husband's dominance of his wife.This annotated collection of three early modern English plays allows readers to explore the relationship between Shakespeare's Shrew and two closely related plays of the same genre, the earlier of which, the anonymous The Taming of a Shrew (whether inspired by Shakespeare's play or vice-versa), once enjoyed a level of popularity that likely surpassed that of Shakespeare's play.The editors' Introduction brilliantly illuminates points of comparison between the three, their larger themes included, and convincingly argues that Shakespeare's Shrew is seen all the more vividly when the anonymous A Shrew and Fletcher's table-turning The Tamer Tamed are waiting in the wings.Trade ReviewThis excellent volume brings together for the first time three plays that need to be read together as each casts light on the other two. It will be invaluable to students and teachers. --David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History, The University of YorkA wonderful edition for teachers and scholars both. I will happily order it for my classes in Shakespeare and in Renaissance English literature. The Shrew is a rich center for cultural debate about marriage, gender, and sexuality—and also, as these three play scripts amply show, about the Renaissance theatre itself as a site for exploring competing views and systems of value. The texts are well annotated and handsomely presented for modern readers. --Margaret Ferguson, University of California, DavisAn idea whose time has come. How wonderful to have all three shrew texts in one convenient volume. The notes and text are modernized and clear. Bravo! --Virginia M. Vaughan, Clark University

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Book SynopsisUnusual among Shakespeare's plays in that it drew theatrical responses from the outset, The Taming of the Shrew continues to inspire adaptations and interpretations that respond to its fascinating, if provocative, representation of a husband's dominance of his wife.This annotated collection of three early modern English plays allows readers to explore the relationship between Shakespeare's Shrew and two closely related plays of the same genre, the earlier of which, the anonymous The Taming of a Shrew (whether inspired by Shakespeare's play or vice-versa), once enjoyed a level of popularity that likely surpassed that of Shakespeare's play.The editors' Introduction brilliantly illuminates points of comparison between the three, their larger themes included, and convincingly argues that Shakespeare's Shrew is seen all the more vividly when the anonymous A Shrew and Fletcher's table-turning The Tamer Tamed are waiting in the wings.Trade ReviewThis excellent volume brings together for the first time three plays that need to be read together as each casts light on the other two. It will be invaluable to students and teachers. --David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History, The University of YorkA wonderful edition for teachers and scholars both. I will happily order it for my classes in Shakespeare and in Renaissance English literature. The Shrew is a rich center for cultural debate about marriage, gender, and sexuality—and also, as these three play scripts amply show, about the Renaissance theatre itself as a site for exploring competing views and systems of value. The texts are well annotated and handsomely presented for modern readers. --Margaret Ferguson, University of California, DavisAn idea whose time has come. How wonderful to have all three shrew texts in one convenient volume. The notes and text are modernized and clear. Bravo! --Virginia M. Vaughan, Clark University

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Book SynopsisCanadian Performance Documents and Debates provides insight into performance activities from the seventeenth century to the early 1970s, and probes important yet vexing questions about Canada as a country and a concept. The volume collects playscripts and archival material to explore what these documents tell us about the values, debates, and priorities of artists and their audiences from the past 400 years. Analyses throughout rethink the significance of theatre, dance, opera, circus, and other performance genres and events. This landmark collection challenges readers to reconsider Canadian theatre and performance history. Foreword by Jerry Wasserman. Contributors: Clarence S. Bayne, Kym Bird, Justin A. Blum, Amy Bowring, Jill Carter, Jenn Cole, Cynthia Cooper, Heather Davis-Fisch, Moira J. Day, Ray Ellenwood, Alan Filewod, Howard Fink, Liza Giffen, J. Paul Halferty, James Hoffman, Erin Hurley, John D. Jackson, Stephen Johnson, Sasha Kovacs, Sylvain Lavoie, Louis Patrick Leroux, Allana C. Lindgren, Denyse Lynde, Erin Joelle McCurdy, Wing Chung Ng, Glen F. Nichols, M. Cody Poulton, VK Preston, Daniel J. Ruppel, Jordan Stanger-Ross, Paul J. Stoesser, Christl Verduyn, Anthony J. Vickery, Anton WagnerTrade Review“Through the invaluable service of gathering together the breadth of crucial texts and materials addressed in its exploratory essays, Canadian Performance Documents and Debates creates, defines, and shapes the very subject of Canadian performance.” Shelley Scott, Professor, University of Lethbridge“Canadian Performance Documents and Debates reflects profoundly upon conceptualizations of Canadian identity and upon debates over the role of the arts in the formation of that identity: both vital questions for us to understand more deeply as we strive to move towards reconciliation and a more just, equitable, and compassionate society.” Roberta Barker, Associate Professor, Dalhousie University“A gargantuan undertaking by the editors and publisher, [Canadian Performance Documents and Debates] is highly informative, engaging, and enlightening with extremely high-quality editing. Considering the wide variety of themes, genres, and materials included, the designer did a fantastic job ensuring the content is manageable and easy to navigate.” Jury comments, 2023 Alberta Book Publishing Awards"Canadian Performance Documents and Debates: A Sourcebook undeniably fills a gap in resources for the Canadian performance history community through its unique content. The collection is aptly titled A Sourcebook as it spans four centuries, containing carefully considered content in which the compilation juxtaposes new publications and fresh points of view with previously available Canadian performance history materials. The text distinguishes itself as an accessible resource with the inclusion of a thematic Table of Contents which uses resonant and relevant categories, including race and gender, and allows a reader to hone in on topic(s) related to their interests. This organizational format contextualizes the contents and sutures the events and documents in time and place while putting them in conversation with one another…. Racism in performance is a thread that runs through many of the chapters, and the accu­mulation of these examples reifies a vivid tapestry illustrating Canada’s settler colonial rela­tions.” Tanya Berg, Theatre Research in Canada, 2023 (Full review at DOI: 10.3138/tric-2023-0027)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction | Sandeep Agrawal I THE RIGHT TO THE CITY 1 | Whose Right to What City? Indigenous Rights amidst Claims for Constitutionally Empowered Cities | Alexandra Flynn 2 | The Right to the City as an Emerging Norm: Codification and Cultural Institutions | Jennifer A. Orange II RIGHTS IN THE CITY 3 | Human Rights and the City in the Pre-Charter Era | Sandeep Agrawal 4 | Group Rights and Collective Rights: What Are They and How Do They Affect Urban Issues? | Sandeep Agrawal & Eran S. Kaplinsky 5 | Human Rights and Canadian Municipalities | Sandeep Agrawal 6 | Becoming a Human Rights City: Lessons from Edmonton | Renée Vaugeois III OTHER RIGHTS IN THE CITY 7 | The Right to Adequate Housing Around the Globe: Analysis and Evaluation of National Constitutions | Michelle L. Oren & Rachelle Alterman 8 | Property Rights and the Canadian City | Eran S. Kaplinsky 9 | The Dangers of Allowing “Othering” Speech in a City’s Public Spaces | Ola P. Malik & Sasha Best Afterword: After Rights? | Benjamin Davy Contributors"

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Book SynopsisRenowned for his endlessly quotable pronouncements, Oscar Wilde cut a dashing figure in late Victorian London … until his tragic downfall resulting from an ill-judged libel action. We remember him not only for his famous trial and imprisonment, but also for a “devil’s dictionary” of timeless aphorisms and for the enduring brilliance of plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde's life resembles his early short story, "The Remarkable Rocket", which, rising from nowhere in a shower of sparks, explodes and falls to earth, exclaiming as it goes out, "I knew I should create a great sensation." Merlin Holland expertly traces the arc of his illustrious ancestor's life, from his birth in Dublin in 1854 as Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, to a brilliant career at Oxford University where his reputation for dandyish wit was first honed, through to his conquest of the drawing rooms and theatres of fashionable London, culminating in disgrace and imprisonment at the hands of the Marquess of Queensberry in the most notorious libel trial in English history. Wilde died in penury and obscurity in 1900, yet his reputation today has never been greater. This engaging and innovative short book features a concise biographical essay on Wilde's meteoric career, followed by a Q&A interview based on Wilde's own words and Merlin Holland's unrivalled knowledge of his grandfather's life, work and puckish observations. This sparkling biography does full justice to Oscar Wilde's writerly genius and irrepressible humanity. It offers readers a renewed appreciation for a man who at times scandalised his era as much as he delights our own.

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Book SynopsisA new and controversial biography of Sir Francis Bacon succinctly putting forward the theory that he was one of Elizabeths illegitimate offspring and the writer of Shakespeares plays.

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Book SynopsisThe True Performing Of It places the two writers side by side and examines the resultant analogies in their work that spring from this positioning. After a teasing prologue, the book begins by reflecting on the significance of Dylan's remarks on Shakespeare when accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, before examining their shared Bardic qualities, and their position of being feted for their undoubted literary qualities despite both being primarily artists of live performances of drama and music. The movement from 'low' to 'high' art is traced and its implications explored in depth and detail, as is the fierce opposition that the parallel theatrical and musical transitions from communal folk art to professional entertainment engendered. The parallels in their approaches to performing art, use of language and source material form core chapters of the book. The last section of the book is an in-depth focus on The Tempest and Tempest as specific examples of the theories and generalitie

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Book SynopsisIn the wake of the fear that gripped Europe after the fall of Constantinople (1453), the English dramatists joined most continental artists (literary and visual) in representing the Ottoman Turks in plays inspired by historical events. As the many subjective elements involved in the stereotyping of the Turks in these plays -- revolving around complex themes such as tyranny, captivity, war, and conquests -- arose from their perception of Islam, Ottoman milieu as a dramatic setting provided for the English audiences a common experience of fascination and fear of the Other. The Ottomans' failure in the second siege of Vienna (1683), however, became a factor in the reversal of trends in the representation of the Turks on stage. As the ascending strength of a web of European alliances began to check further the Ottoman expansion, what then began to dazzle the aesthetic imagination of the eighteenth century England was the sultan's seraglio with images of extravaganza and decadence. In this book, Esin Akalin draws upon a selective range of seventeenth and eighteenth century plays to reach an understanding, both from a non-European perspective and Western standpoint how one culture represents the other through discourse, historiography, and drama. The book explores a cluster of issues revolving around identity and difference in terms of history, ideology, and politics of representation. In contextualising political, cultural, and intellectual roots in the ideology of representing the Ottoman/Muslim as the Wests Other, the author, ultimately, tackles with the questions of how history serves literature and to what extent literature creates history.

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Book SynopsisForming a pair with the voice, the gaze is a central structuring element of Samuel Becketts creation. And yet it takes the form of a strangely impersonal visual dimension testifying to the absence of an original exchange of gazes capable of founding personal identity and opening up the world to desire. The collapse of conventional reality and the highlighting of seeing devices -- eyes, mirrors, windows -- point to the absence of a unified representation. While masks and closed spaces show the visible to be opaque and devoid of any beyond, light and darkness, spectres -- manifestations without origin -- reveal a realm beyond the confines of identity, where nothing provides a mediation with the seen, or sets it within perspective. Finally, Becketts use of the audio-visual media deepens his exploration of the irreducibly real part of existence that escapes seeing. This study systematically examines these essential aspects of the visual in Becketts creation. The theoretical elaborations of Jacques Lacan -- in relation with corresponding developments in the history and philosophy of the visual arts -- offer an indispensible framework to understand the imaginary not as representation, but as rooted in the fundamental opacity of existence.

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Book SynopsisThis comprehensive and well researched text deals with the major Indian playright in English. It encompasses such work as Rabindranath Tagore's red orleanders, etc

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Book SynopsisThe theme of community has perhaps never been of a more vital significance than in our present day and age. The process we refer to as modernity has been synonymous with the gradual fragmentation and disintegration of traditional communities on various levels of our societies. Today, we might be facing the culmination of this process. The spectres of nationalism are undermining various national and international communities. Inequality is on the rise. If people unite it is too often in the mistrust and sometimes hatred of other people. Hans Christian Andersen lived at a time when this process was at its early stages, and he was acutely aware of its potential perils. Alongside the transformations of traditional communities, other communities seem to appear. A recurring element in these culturally specific communities is literature, and Hans Christian Andersen is a key figure here, as his literary and cultural legacy has a magnetic effect on people around the globe. A vivid example of this effect was the conference Hans Christian Andersen and Community. The conference was held at the University of Southern Denmark in 2017 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersens status as honourary citizen in Odense. This book presents a selection of 19 contributions to the conference. In various ways, each chapter activates the concept of community in relation to Andersen as an author and as a citizen of the world he lived in as well as the cultural icon which he has become.

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Book SynopsisT S Eliot, udually considered to be difficult and obscure, must be approached through the images running through his work as woof and wrap. This book analyses the poetry and plays of T.S. Eliot in the light of a recurrent pattern of images which unlocks the ambiguity of this modern poet, making him comprehensible to the reader and lending an interesting charm to the art of this new critic. the complex inter-relation and inter-play of the recurrent images assumes a principle of unity.

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Book SynopsisThis dramatisation for schools of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel is presented in the form of a tv documentary involving expert witnesses trying to get to the bottom of the strange case. The story is reconstructed and the audience is taken back to Victorian London…

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Book SynopsisWhat if Christopher Marlowe staged his own death, fled to the Continent and went on to write the works we now attribute to Shakespeare?Trade Review‘Bolt recreates an alternative life of Marlowe that compellingly views the known facts from a different angle.’ Independent ‘A learned and clever piece of historical investigation which cocks a snook as much at the heretics as at the orthodox.’ Independent on Sunday ‘“History Play” is a triumph because…its passion is with the search, with the idea of how our concepts of history and biography are created. “History Play” is, by turns, a jeu d’esprit, an examination of the idea of historical study and a play-filled novel. It made me laugh out loud. And most of all, it made me want to go back to the plays. This was a book that needed to be done perfectly or not at all. It is perfect.’ Spectator

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Book SynopsisExplores 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.

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Book SynopsisA selection of The Bard's greatest writings edited by the great Shakespearean Stephen OrgelWilliam Shakespeare's plays revolutionized the English language and created some of the most important scenes in Western literature: Hamlet contemplating his mortality, Romeo romancing Juliet, Lear railing against his insanity into the storm, and King Henry V wandering among his soldiers on the eve of battle. With introductions and context from leading Shakespearean scholar Stephen Orgel, the essential works of the most important figure in English literature are collected here: nine complete plays, the most popular scenes and poems, as well as a glossary of 1,000 key words. With clear and authoritative texts from the Pelican Shakespeare series, this user-friendly edition will inspire students, thespians, poets, and general readers alike.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,7

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Book SynopsisLook out for a new book from Garry Wills, What the Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017.Riveting . . . a double-barreled salvo that hits two bull's-eyes. —The New York Times Book ReviewThis dazzling study of the three operas that Giuseppe Verdi adapted from Shakespeare's plays takes readers on a wonderfully engaging journey through opera, music, literature, history, and the nature of genius. Verdi's Shakespeare explores the writing and staging of Macbetto (Macbeth), Otello (Othello), and Falstaff, operas by Verdi, an Italian composer who could not read a word of English but who adored Shakespeare. Delving into the fast-paced worlds of these men and the hands-on life of the stage that at once challenged them and gave flight to their brilliance, Wills, in his inimitable way, illuminates the birth of artistic creation.Trade ReviewA Booklist Editors Choice Pick for 2011 “Wonderfully illuminating. This book is the product of a lifetime of listening and watching….No lover of Verdi—or Shakespeare, for that matter—will want to miss it.” —Opera News “Riveting…a double-barreled salvo that hits two bull’s-eyes. Shakespeare scholarship is one of the world’s thriving industries, with no factories but worldwide workshops. While you are reading this, there must be hundreds (thousands?) of worthies turning out articles and books from pole to pole. But ­Garry Wills has upped the ante. There is a fair, but not daunting, amount of musical analysis, as well as much acknowledged borrowing and quoting from other relevant writers. This only makes the book more useful, what with burrowings (rather than borrowings) a worm would be proud of, and a panorama worthy of a fly’s multifaceted eye. “Nomen est omen” goes a Latin adage: the name is a signifier. So the noun “Wills” suggests manifold motivation, multiple resolve. Whatever Garry undertakes, trust Wills to get done.” —John Simon, The New York Times “Wills’s joyously engaged, scholarly yet personable essay is not just a treat but also a banquet succulent enough to make Shakespeareans and Verdians of all who partake of it.” —Booklist, starred review “Opera aficionados will delight in Wills’s thoughtful, deeply rehearsed essays. . . . [His] detailed depictions of the operas’ subtleties, sublimely rendered for opera fans, endlessly elucidate the work of these ‘creative volcanoes.’” —Publishers Weekly “Wills brilliantly explores the evolution, development, and performance histories of the three plays (actually, four, counting both Henry IV and Merry Wives of Windsor as inspirations for Falstaff), the three operas, and the connections among them. As essential purchase. ” —Library Journal, starred review “Wills’s insights into both Verdi’s acute understanding of Shakespeare and his ingenious methods of conveying it are thrilling—particularly his account of how, when composing “Otello,” Verdi encapsulated the six hundred and eighty-six lines of the play’s first act within a few minutes of music.” —The New Yorker “Fascinating.” —Commonweal Magazine “One genius interprets another: English to Italian, words to lyrics, immortal drama to overpowering opera. . . . While the book has an enormous amount to teach devotees of either Shakespeare or Verdi, opera fans in particular will enjoy the author’s close and illuminating attention to backstage history, as well as words, music and phrasing.” —Kirkus“Despite the novelty of the subject in VERDI'S SHAKESPEARE, Wills’s writing is characteristically clear and marked with literate ping. . . . Throughout, he demonstrates an innate understanding of drama and music and how they can work together. His analysis of melody, harmony and orchestration are as solid as his examination of theatrical practice and technique. And his research is thorough. He draws on the considerable store of data unearthed by others, citing in his more than one hundred footnotes a veritable Who’s Who of opera and theater scholars.” —The Washington Independent Review of Books

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Book SynopsisStephen Scully both offers a reading of Hesiod''s Theogony and traces the reception and shadows of this authoritative Greek creation story in Greek and Roman texts up to Milton''s own creation myth, which sought to soar above th'' Aonian Mount [i.e., the Theogony] ... and justify the ways of God to men. Scully also considers the poem in light of Near Eastern creation stories, including the Enûma elish and Genesis, as well as the most striking of modern scientific myths, Freud''s Civilization and its Discontents. Scully reads Hesiod''s poem as a hymn to Zeus and a city-state creation myth, arguing that Olympus is portrayed as an idealized polity and - with but one exception - a place of communal harmony. This reading informs his study of the Theogony''s reception in later writings about polity, discord, and justice. The rich and various story of reception pays particular attention to the long Homeric Hymns, Solon, the Presocratics, Pindar, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Plato in the Archaic and Classical periods; to the Alexandrian scholars, Callimachus, Euhemerus, and the Stoics in the Hellenistic period; to Ovid, Apollodorus, Lucan, a few Church fathers, and the Neoplatonists in the Roman period. Tracing the poem''s reception in the Byzantine, medieval, and early Renaissance, including Petrarch and Erasmus, the book ends with a lengthy exploration of Milton''s imitations of the poem in Paradise Lost. Scully also compares what he considers Hesiod''s artful interplay of narrative, genealogical lists, and keen use of personified abstractions in the Theogony to Homeric narrative techniques and treatment of epic verse.Trade ReviewScully has long been interested in the polis, as his excellent 1990 study, Homer and the Sacred City, demonstrated, and this new volume about Hesiod's Theogony is, in a sense, an extension of that interest. An equally exciting aspect of this comprehensive study is its clear and full discussion of Hesiod's until-now overlooked literary methods, in which personification reflects psychological reality, or flows from action, and in which common nouns, in their shifting meanings, follow the narrative arc of the poem. * Helaine L. Smith, Semicerchio: Rivista di poesia comparata *The heart of Stephen Scully's book is a masterful inquiry into the place of the Theogony in literary history, in the course of which he makes important observations about the evolution of ancient Greek ideas of the cosmos, divinity, sexuality and gender, justice, and the polis. He prefaces his historical investigations with a careful reading of the poem on its own terms, before looking backward toward its sources and then forward toward the influence it exerted on later texts. Literary analysis and literary history are carefully interwoven, as Scully's initial reading of the poem provides a road map for the historical sections of the book. * Deborah Lyons, American Journal of Philology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; Introduction ; Chapter I: Points of Comparison: Hesiod and Homer; the Theogony and Genesis ; Chapter II: The Theogony ; Chapter III: The Theogony and Eastern Parallels: City-State Succession Myths? ; Chapter IV: The Theogony in the Archaic and Classical periods ; Chapter V: Echoes of the Theogony in the Hellenistic and Roman periods ; Chapter VI: Theogonic shadows: Byzantine, Medieval and Renaissance, Milton's Paradise Lost ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisDoes philosophy gain or lose when it is embedded within literature or embodied by drama? Does literary criticism gain or lose when it turns to literary works as occasions for abstract reflection? Leading literary scholars and philosophers interrogate philosophical dimensions of Shakespeare''s Hamlet with these urgent questions in view.Scholars probe Hamlet''s own insights, assess the significance of philosophy''s literary-dramatic framing by this play, and trace the philosophically-relevant underpinnings revealed by historical transformations in Hamlet''s reception. They focus on the play''s thematizations of subjectivity, knowledge, sex, grief, self-theatricalization.Examining Shakespeare''s play from a philosophical standpoint sharpens the questions the play itself so famously poses: What counts as a proper response to injustice upon realizing that whatever one does, there can be no undoing of the initial wrong? What do our commitments to the dead amount to? How to persist in infusinTrade Reviewso blithe and smart that it deserves to be adopted in every classroom. Its magic owes to a rare sense of shared purpose and shared tone. * Ellen MacKay, Studies in English Literature *Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Foreword, Richard Eldridge Editor's Introduction, Tzachi Zamir Chapter 1. On (Not) Making Oneself Known John Gibson Chapter 2. Staging Wisdom through Hamlet Paul Woodruff Chapter 3. Philosophical Sex David Hillman Chapter 4. Self-uncertainty as self-realization Paul A. Kottman Chapter 5. Hamlet's "Now" of Inward Being Sanford Budick Chapter 6. To Thine Own Selves be True-ish: Shakespeare's Hamlet as Formal Model Joshua Landy Chapter 7. "Unpacking the heart": Why it is impossible to say "I love you" in Hamlet's Elsinore David Schalkwyk Chapter 8. Hamlet's Ethics Sarah Beckwith Chapter 9. Interpreting Hamlet: The Early German Reception Kristin Gjesdal

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Book SynopsisBased on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. Under the general editorship of the late William Arrowsmith and Herbert Golder, each volume includes a critical introduction, commentary on the text, full stage directions, and a glossary of the mythical and geographical references in the plays. This vital translation of Euripides'' Electra recreates the prize-winning excitement of the original play. Electra, obsessed by dreams of avenging her father''s murder, impatiently awaits the return of her exiled brother Orestes. When he arrives, the play mounts toward its first climax, a tender recognition scene. From that moment on, Electra uses Orestes as her instrument of vengeance. They kill their mother''s

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Book SynopsisEuripides'' Bakkhai is the staple of the canon of Greek tragedy and is required or strongly recommended reading for most undergraduate Classics majors. It also surfaces quite often in non-classics courses focusing on tragedy because its structure and thematics offer exemplary models of the classic tragic elements. The plot of Bakkhai centers around the actions of Pentheus, King of Thebes, who refused to recognise the god Dionysus or permit Thebans to worship him. In revenge, Dionysus drove Pentheus mad, made him cross-dress as a maenad, sent him to worship the god he had spurned, and made his mother, Agave, mistake him for a wild beast and rip him to shreds. Gibbons, a prize-winning poet, and Segal, a renowned classicist, are both leaders in their professions and are well-suited to take on this central text of Greek tragedy. This edition includes an introduction, a new translation, notes on the text, and a glossary.Trade Reviewthis translation merits serious thought for classroom and even scholarly use. Of particular interest is Segal's extensive reconstruction of the lacunae that mar the end of the Bakkhai, including the so-called compositio membrorum of Pentheus. * Thomas E. Jenkins, Trinity University *Gibbons ... has crafted a lyrical verse translation that displays an evident understanding of and respect fo the source text. * Thomas E. Jenkins, Trinity University *This is a lovely, thoughtful edition of the play, and between Gibbon's sturdy verse and Segal's sensitive notes, one can hardly go wrong in assigning the text to an introductory literature class. And even more advanced students of Greek tragedy will wish to examine Segal's valuable appendix on the compositio membrorum, a succinct and insightful bit of scholarship in its own right. * Thomas E. Jenkins, Trinity University *

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Book SynopsisIn Herakles, Euripides reveals with great subtlety and complexity the often brutal underpinnings of our social arrangements. The play enacts a thoroughly contemporary dilemma about the relationship between personal and state violence to civic order . Of all of Euripides'' plays, this is his most skeptically subversive examination of myth, morality, and power. The play depicts Herakles being driven mad by Hera, the wife of Zeus. Hera hates Herakles because he is one of Zeus'' children born of adultery. In his madness, Herakles is driven to murder his own wife and children, and he eventually exiles himself to Athens. The volume includes a new translation, an introduction, notes on the text, and a glossary.

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Book SynopsisA new translation of a long-neglected Greek drama that has become increasingly popular in classrooms and on the stage. The two editors, Alan Shapiro and Peter Burian, a poet and classicist, collaborated previously on The Oresteia. This is the final volume of the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series.Trade ReviewShapiro's poetic translation works not just as a rendering of Greek, but as a good, at times gripping, English Literature script. * Maxine Lewis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction On the Translation Trojan Women Notes on the Text Glossary For Further Reading

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Book SynopsisBased on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. The volume brings together four major works by one of the greatest classical dramatists: Electra, translated by Anne Carson and Michael Shaw, a gripping story of revenge, manipulation, and the often tense conflict of the human spirit; Aias, translated by Herbert Golder and Richard Pevear, an account of the heroic suicide of the Trojan war hero better known as Ajax; Philoctetes, translated by Carl Phillips and Diskin Clay, a morally complex and penetrating play about the conflict between personal integrity and public duty; and The Women of Trachis, translated by C.K. Williams and Gregory W. Dickerson, an urgent tale of mutability in a universe of precipitouTable of ContentsElectra ; Aias ; Philoctetes ; The Women of Trachis

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Book SynopsisCollected here for the first time in the series are three major plays by Euripides: Bacchae, translated by Reginald Gibbons and Charles Segal, a powerful examination of the horror and beauty of Dionysiac ecstasy; Herakles, translated by Tom Sleigh and Christian Wolff, a violent dramatization of the madness and exile of one of the most celebrated mythical figures; and The Phoenician Women, translated by Peter Burian and Brian Swamm, a disturbing interpretation of the fate of the House of Laios following the tragic fall of Oedipus. These three tragedies were originally available as single volumes. This volume retains the informative introductions and explanatory notes of the original editions and adds a single combined glossary and Greek line numbers.Table of ContentsBacchae ; Herakles ; The Phoenician Women

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewthe poets in these volumes communicate a freshness and vitality ... The vivid and responsive re-creations are a clear first-choice recommendation for the general reader * James Morwood, Classical Review *Table of ContentsAndromache (Susan Stewart, Princeton University; Wesley D. Smith, University of Pennsylvania) ; Hecuba (Janet Lembke, poet and translator; Kenneth J. Reckford, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) ; Trojan Women (Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro) ; Rhesos (Richard Emil Braun, University of Alberta in Edmonton)

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Book SynopsisBased on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. This volume collects Euripides'' Electra (translated by Janet Lembke and Kenneth J. Reckford), an exciting story of vengeance that counterposes suspense and horror with comic realism; Orestes (John Peck and Frank Nisetich), the tragedy of a young man who kills his mother to avenge her murder of his father; Iphigenia in Tauris (Richmond Lattimore), a delicately written and beautifully contrived Euripidean romance; and Iphigeneia at Aulis (W. S. Merwin and George E. Dimock, Jr.), a compelling look at the devastating consequence of man''s inhumanity to man. This volume reprints the informative introductions and notes of the original editions, and adds a single combined glossary and Greek line numbers.Trade Reviewthe poets in these volumes communicate a freshness and vitality ... The vivid and responsive re-creations are a clear first-choice recommendation for the general reader * James Morwood, Classical Review *Table of ContentsElectra (Janet Lembke, poet and translator; Kenneth J. Reckford, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) ; Orestes (John Peck, poet; Frank Nisetich, University of Massachusetts, Boston) ; Iphigenia in Tauris (the late Richmond Lattimore, poet and translator) ; Iphigeneia at Aulis (W. S. Merwin, poet and translator; George E. Dimock, Jr., author)

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