Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1950, this volume contains a vivid English verse translation by Paul H. Curts of one of the most profound and moving tragedies of German literature.

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Book SynopsisPaul Yachnin is Tomlinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies and Director of the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (IPLAI) at McGill University, Canada.Trade ReviewThis impressive and wide-ranging volume brings together a variety of perspectives to consider the expansive world of words that unfolds on Shakespeare’s stage. One of the most welcome features of Shakespeare’s World of Words is its diverse body of contributors. Essays from literary scholars appear alongside those by theater practitioners and performance scholars … The “opening up” of interpretive possibilities is one of this volume’s best gifts. Readers come away with a renewed perspective on the many elements that render Shakespeare’s world of words so rich. * Shakespeare Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction 1. Well-Won Thrift Michael Bristol (McGill University) and Sara Coodin (University of Oklahoma) 2. Proper Names and Common Bodies: The Case of Cressida David Schalkwyk (Folger Shakespeare Library) 3. Antique/Antic: Archaism, Neologism and the Play of Shakespeare’s Words in Love’s Labor’s Lost and 2 Henry IV Lucy Munro (University of Keele) 4. Learning to Color in Hamlet Miriam Jacobson (University of Georgia) 5. Recasting ‘Angling’ in The Winter's Tale J. A. Shea (Dawson College) 6. ‘What may be and should be’: Grammar Moods and the Invention of History in 1 Henry VI Lynne Magnusson (University of Toronto) 7. Othello and Theatrical Language Sarah Werner (Folger Shakespeare Library) 8. Slips of Wilderness: Verbal and Gestural Language in Measure for Measure Paul Yachnin and Patrick Neilson (McGill University) 9. ‘Captious and Inteemable’: Reading Comprehension in Shakespeare Meredith Evans (Concordia University) 10. ‘Time is their master’: Men and Meter in The Comedy of Errors Jennifer Roberts-Smith (University of Waterloo) Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisStephen Guy-Bray is Professor and Head of the Department of English at the University of British Columbia, Canada.Martin Wiggins is a Fellow of The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK.Table of ContentsIntroduction A Note on the Text Further Reading Edward II

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Book SynopsisContributors: Roger Brock (Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Leeds); Chris Carey (Professor of Greek, University College, London); Maria de Fatima Silva (Professor of Classics, University of Coimbra); Maria do Ceu Fialho (Professor of Classics, University of Coimbra); Edward M. Harris (Professor of Greek History, Durham University); Delfim F. Leao (Professor of Classics, University of Coimbra); Douglas M. MacDowell (Professor Emeritus of Greek, University of Glasgow); F.S. Naiden (Assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill); P.J. Rhodes (formerly Professor of Ancient History, now Honorary Professor, University of Durham); Alan H. Sommerstein (Professor of Greek, University of Nottingham).Trade ReviewEn effet, les auteurs se sont donné pour projet de montrer non seulement comment les pratiques judiciaires permettent de comprendre le théâtre, mais aussi comment le théâtre permet de connaître la justice athénienne. -- BMCR (2010.12.09)

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Book SynopsisKaren Britland is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.Trade ReviewThe play is well-chosen for the present moment, with its struggling immigrants, social predation, and vibrant street scenes, and Britland does an excellent job of clarifying the puns and jabs often lost on student readers, much of them in polyglot argot. * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Attentive to the literary influences behind Marston's play ... Particularly illuminating is Britland's attention to Marston's borrowings from Montaigne. * Times Literary Supplement *This is by far the best edition of the play on the market, superbly treated by Karen Britland. * Professor Alison Shell, University College London, UK *Table of ContentsSeries Preface; Introduction; The Dutch Courtesan; Bibliography; Appendices; Index

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Book SynopsisBrinda Charry is Professor of English at Keene State College, New Hampshire, USA.Table of ContentsPart I 1. Politics and Society 2. Men and Women 3. Travel and Trade 4. Humanism 5. The stage 6. Authors, Books and Readers 7. Genre 8. Language and Style Part II The Alchemist Arden of Faversham Doctor Faustus The Duchess of Malfi Hamlet Henry V The Jew of Malta The Knight of the Burning Pestle The Roaring Girl The Shoemaker’s Holiday The Spanish Tragedy The Tempest The Tragedy of Mariam Volpone Appendices Index

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Book SynopsisRoger Paulin is Schröder Professor Emeritus at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK.Contributors: Michèle Willems (University of Rouen, France), Stephen Fennell (University of Cambridge, UK), Christine Roger (Université de Picardie, France) and Reginald Foakes (UCLA, USA).Table of ContentsSeries Preface Notes on Contributors Note on References to Shakespeare Introduction Voltaire Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Friedrich von Schlegel Samuel Taylor Coleridge Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisJoan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company was set up at the end of the war and started by touring in Wales, the industrial north and Scotland. In 1953 they moved into the Theatre Royal, Stratford, London E15 and remained there for the next eleven years during which time they built up an international reputation. Their best work included classical revivals like Volpone and Edward II and new plays like The Quare Fellow and The Hostage by Brendan Behan, A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney and musical plays like Fings Ain't Wot They Used T' Be by Frank Norman and Lionel Bart.

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Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to teach Shakespeare with purpose? It means freeing teachers from the notion that teaching Shakespeare means teaching everything, or teaching Western Civilisation and universal themes. Instead, this invigorating new book equips teachers to enable student-centred discovery of these complex texts. Because Shakespeare's plays are excellent vehicles for many topics history, socio-cultural norms and mores, vocabulary, rhetoric, literary tropes and terminology, performance history, performance strategies it is tempting to teach his plays as though they are good for teaching everything. This lens-free approach, however, often centres the classroom on the teacher as the expert and renders Shakespeare's plays as fixed, determined, and dead. Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose shows teachers how to approach Shakespeare's works as vehicles for collaborative exploration, to develop intentional frames for discovery, and to release the texts from over-determined interpretatioTrade ReviewThompson and Turchi describe techniques for moving us away from teacher-centered historical expertise toward a collaborative and participatory model of learning that puts Shakespearean language and performance at the center of the classroom experience … It’s innovative, practical, and generous; I hope it will be read widely and put to use. * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose is not just a practical guide but an argument for the continued relevance of Shakespeare survey courses … Each chapter grounds the teaching theory in practical examples from a model class. The chapters are full of helpful activities including model close readings, themes, and questions from the plays selected (each chapter relies on a different one to model the pedagogy discussed). This approach is advantageous since it provides value for readers who may only have time to read a chapter or two. As well, the pedagogical process described is adaptable to any set of plays. Thompson and Turchi discuss framing, guided questions, entry points, and close readings that allow any teacher the structure she needs to get started on designing her Introduction to Shakespeare course while preserving an individual’s pedagogical strengths and the freedom to pick any of the plays … As someone working on an ‘Introduction to Shakespeare’ class for the first time, this book was a must read if only for the way that it helped put the task of design, teaching, and assessment, in perspective. However, the authors demystify and clarify the purpose of all of the aspects of an introductory course in a way that is not overbearing. Their argument is always student-centered and asks us to make choices about how we approach any aspect of the play (be it the history, the language, or the writing assignments we pick) in order to enhance the experience for the students. In this way, they have given readers a good model not just for the teaching of an ‘Introduction to Shakespeare’ course but other literature courses as well. * This Rough Magic *Table of ContentsChapter One: Introduction: The Realities of the 21st Century Chapter Two: Finding Your Purpose and Putting It into Action: Framing Chapter Three: ‘Ancient English’: Shakespeare’s Language Chapter Four: Embodiment: What Is It (Not)? Chapter Five: History: What Time Are You Thinking About? Chapter Six: Writing Assignments with a Purpose Chapter Seven: Assessment with a Purpose Chapter Eight: The Tyranny of Resources Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis Your complete introduction to ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare has been hailed as one of the greatest thinkers of all time, one of the world''s finest artists, poets and dramatists. Shakespeare: A Complete Introduction introduces and explains the plays by looking at how they work, taking you on a journey through the genres of comedy, history and tragedy. The best known and most popular plays are discussed in detail and even plays in which Shakespeare may have had only the briefest creative and collaborative interest as a writer, get at least a mention. With material on his poetry and discussions on aspects of his life too, this truly is a complete introduction to Shakespeare.''A very lively and enthusiastic introduction to the full range of Shakespeare''s plays'' John Drakakis, Professor of English, University of Stirling''A masterpiece of the genre, written as it is with passion, without condescension, without jargon, thoughtful andTrade ReviewA very lively and enthusiastic introduction to the full range of Shakespeare's plays. I can think of no better way to encounter the issues that these plays raise and the possibilities that they offer for performance. Michael Scott's wholly admirable strategy is to focus on particular issues that the plays raise, to incorporate into his discussions some aspects of the latest scholarship, and to provide pathways through the texts with a firm eye on the reader's and the spectator's enjoyment. -- John Drakakis, Professor of English, University of StirlingA masterpiece of the genre, written as it is with passion, without condescension, without jargon, thoughtful and open to changing critical theories, but always returning to the plays themselves, plays that fully reveal themselves most in performance. -- Martin Wine, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)

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Book SynopsisGeorge Rodosthenous is Associate Professor in Theatre Directing at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries of the University of Leeds, UK. He is the Artistic Director of the theatre company 'Altitude North' and also works as a freelance director/composer for the theatre.Trade ReviewAs a contribution to the field, the book provides many interesting insights and departure points for further discussion ... it is gratifying to see Disney musicals attract such scholarly attention. * Studies in Musical Theatre *Table of ContentsIntroduction: George Rodosthenous (Leeds) PART A DISNEY MUSICALS: ON FILM 1. Music and the Aura of Reality in Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Elizabeth Randell Upton, (University of California, Los Angeles) 2. Medieval “Beauty” and Romantic “Song” in Animated Technirama: Pageantry, Tableau, and Action in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty – Raymond Knapp (University of California, Los Angeles) 3. Mary Poppins: A Precursor of the Matriarchal Musical – Tim Stephenson (University of Leeds) 4. Musicals in the Mirror: Enchanted, Self-Reflexivity, and Disney's Sudden Boldness – Paul Laird (University of Kansas) PART B DISNEY ADAPTATIONS: ON STAGE AND BEYOND 5. Disney as Broadway Auteur: The Disney Versions of Broadway Musicals for Television in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s – Geoffrey Block (University of Puget Sound) 6. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996): Too far “Out There”? Olaf Jubin – (Regent’s University London) 7. The Lion King: A Blockbuster Feline on Broadway and Beyond – Barbara Wallace Grossman (Tufts University) 8. Not Only on Broadway: Disney Junior Across the United States – Stacy E. Wolf (Princeton Atelier, Princeton University)? PART C DISNEY MUSICALS: GENDER AND RACE 9. Dancing toward Masculinity: Newsies and Homosocial Choreography – Aaron C. Thomas (Dartmouth College) 10. ‘We’re All in This Together:’ Being Girls and Boys in High School Musical (2006) - Dominic Symonds (University of Lincoln) 11. ‘I wanna be like you’: Negotiating race, racism and Orientalism in The Jungle Book on stage– Stefanie Jones, Donatella Galella, Catherine Young, and Emily Clark (City University of New York) 12. Ashman’s Aladdin Archive: Queer Orientalism in the Disney Renaissance – Sam Baltimore (Twoson University) 13. “For the first time in forever”: locating Frozen as a feminist Disney musical – Sarah Whitfield (University of Wolverhampton) Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisShakespeare and Posthumanist Theory charts challenges in the field of Shakespeare studies to the assumption that the category human is real, stable, or worthy of privileging in discussions of the playwright's work. Drawing on a variety of methodologies cognitive theory, systems theory, animal studies, ecostudies, the new materialisms the volume investigates the world of Shakespeare's plays and poems in order to represent more thoroughly its variety, its ethics of inclusion, and its resistance to human triumphalism and exceptionalism. Karen Raber, a leading scholar in the field, clearly and cogently guides the reader through complex theoretical terrain, providing fresh, exciting readings of plays including Othello, The Tempest, Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida and Henry IV Part 1.Trade ReviewAn excellent orientation to this theory and practice that will interest multiple audiences. In no-nonsense prose, Raber sets out the intellectual genealogy of posthumanism… * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Series Editor's Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1: We Have Never Been Humanist: Genealogies of Posthumanism Chapter 2: Posthuman Cosmography Chapter 3: Bodies and Minds Chapter 4: Neither Fish nor Fowl Chapter 5: TechnoBard Chapter 6: Post-posthumanism? Back to the Future Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWritten specifically for GCSE students by academics in the field, the Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions provide in-depth explanatory material alongside the play texts frequently studied at Key Stage 4. Whether for use in the classroom or independent study, these editions offer a fully comprehensive and lightly glossed play text with accompanying notes specifically directed towards readers of this age, which unravel essential topics and challenge all students to delve further into literary analysis. In Simon Stephens''s multi-award-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on Mark Haddon''s novel, Christopher''s investigation into the death of the neighbour''s dog tears his world apart and confronts him with the struggle to survive when everything feels foreign.In addition to some on-page explanatory notes and the play text itself, this edition contains sub-headed analyses of themes, characters, context and dramatic devices, as well asTrade ReviewTrue to the original novel, Simon Stephens's version drips with ideas * Evening Standard *Table of ContentsConcise critical commentary, focusing upon key speeches/events; language; dramatic technique Expanded sections on theme, dramatic technique, characterisation and context Close reading of selected passages Press reviews including up-to-date reviews Words of actors and directors who have been involved in the play Playwrights' own words (annotated) Short extracts from critical writings on the playwright Extensive activities involving other works by the playwright

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Book SynopsisThis new volume in the Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition series increases our knowledge of how Antony and Cleopatra has been received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. The volume provides, in separate sections, both critical opinions about the play across the centuries and an evaluation of their positions within and their impact on the reception of the play. The chronological arrangement of the text-excerpts engages the readers in a direct and unbiased dialogue, and the introduction offers a critical evaluation from a current stance, including modern theories and methods. This volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the play and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism surrounding it as they have developed from century to century.

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Book SynopsisHamlet is one of Shakespeare''s four great tragedies, studied and performed around the world. This new volume in Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition increases our knowledge of how Shakespeare's plays were received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. It traces the course of Hamlet criticism, from the earliest items of recorded criticism to the latter half of the Victorian period. The focus of the documentary material is from the late 18th century to the late 19th century. Thus the volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the play and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism surrounding it as they have developed from century to century. The introduction constitutes an important chapter of literary history, tracing the entire critical career of Hamlet from the beginnings to the present day.The volume features criticism from leading literary figures, such as Henry James, Anna Jameson, Victor Hugo, Thomas Carlyle, SamuelTable of Contentsgeneral editor’s preface preface introduction 1. thomas davies, on Steevens’s and Malone’s editions and various 18th century theatrical performances, 1784 2. william richardson, a philosophical analysis of Hamlet’s character, 1784 3. walter whiter, on Hamlet’s melancholic disposition, 1794 4. johann wolfgang von goethe, Hamlet’s character as analogue for Wilheim Meister’s own disenchantment, 1797 5 lord john chedworth, Glosses and personal annotation of early variorum editions (Johnson, Steevens, Malone), 1805 6 e.h. seymour, on collations of various passages from quartos as a means of making the ‘brightness of Shakespeare’s genius still more conspicuous’, 1805 7 francis douce, on the historical, cultural analogues and ‘anachronisms’ of the play, 1807 8 henry james pye, various commentary notes, 1807 9 john monck mason, various commentary on variorum editions, 1807 10 august wilhelm von schlegel, on Hamlet’s unheroic predisposition, 1808 11 samuel taylor coleridge, on Hamlet’s “unpractical being” and similarity with Wilhelm Meister, 1810 12 charles lamb, on the difficulty of representing theatrically Hamlet’s ‘solitary musings’, 1811 13 samuel taylor coleridge, on Hamlet’s “irresoluteness” of his revenge in Act 3, 1812 14 samuel taylor coleridge, Hamlet’s use of ‘trivial objects and familiar circumstances’, 1813 15 william hazlitt, on Edmund Kean’s rehearsal of Hamlet’s ‘undulating lines’, 1814 16 andrew becket, on the importance of collation and conjecture in determining Shakespeare’s meaning, 1815 17 william hazlitt, on the complexity of Hamlet’s characters, with passing reference to Kemble and Kean’s flawed performances, 1817 18 samuel taylor coleridge, and Hamlet’s “flying” from reality, 1818 19 t[homas] c[ampbell] [john wilson] ‘Letters on Shakspeare – No. 1. – Hamlet.’, 1818 20 samuel taylor coleridge, Hamlet and the development of his ‘philosophical criticism’, 1819 21 zachary jackson, presenting 700 passages needing penetration and restoration, 1819 22 anon. ‘Observations on Mr. Campbell’s Essay on English Poetry’, 1819 23 samuel taylor coleridge, and the ‘easy language of common life’ in Hamlet, 1819 24 samuel taylor coleridge, on Hamlet Act 1, 1819 25 samuel taylor coleridge, miscellaneous manuscript notes, 1819 26 augustine skottowe, various observations on scenes, 1824 27 samuel weller singer, and the dating of Hamlet, 1826 28 hartley coleridge, on the complexity of reading Hamlet’s character, 1828 29 george farren, an appendix on mania and melancholy in Hamlet and Ophelia, 1829 30 thomas caldecott, a defense of Hamlet’s behavior as a means of enacting revenge, 1832 31 james boaden, a memoir of Garrick’s Hamlet, 1832 32 anna jameson, Ophelia, ‘the snowflake dissolved in air’, 1832 33 nathan drake, Hamlet’s reticence to revenge, 1838 34 thomas carlyle, Shakespeare: Priest of Mankind, 1840 35 alexander dyce, a critique of Collier’s 1841 and Knight’s 1842 editions, 1844 36 joseph hunter, Shakespearean variants, 1845 37 henry n. hudson, the ‘universality’ of Hamlet’s character, 1848 38 edward strachey, Hamlet as a ‘man’ and the ‘triumph’ of his revenge, 1848 39 samuel weller singer, “the meaning of ‘Drink Up Eisell’ in Hamlet.” 1850 40 nicolaus delius, selected commentary notes, 1854 41 rev. arthur ramsay, and the ‘mystery of humanity’, 1856 42 henry hope reed, on Hamlet’s ‘meditative mind’, 1856 43 william maginn, on Polonius as ‘ceremonious courtier’, 1856 44 william rushton, on Shakespeare’s legal acumen, 1859 45 ivan turgenev,on the ‘turbulent sea’ and the ‘deep flowing tranquility’, 1860 46 charles cowden clarke and the ‘shrouding’ of Hamlet’s revenge, 1863 47 georg gottfried gervinus, the ‘conscientious’ Hamlet, 1863 48 b[rinsley] nicholson, Shakespeare and ‘sour and stale beer’, 1864 49 james henry hackett, reviews of contemporary ‘Hamlets’, 1864 50 victor hugo , Hamlet and “hesitation”, 1864 51 albert cohn, the German ‘Hamlet’, 1865 52 samuel bailey, on the empirical Shakespeare, 1866 53 john bucknill, ‘Ophelia, so simple, so beautiful, so pitiful’, 1867 54 thomas keightley, on individual passages, 1867 55 benno tschischwitz, on Bruno’s atomistic philosophy and Hamlet, 1867 56 benno tschischwitz, on Shakespeare’s philosophy and Giordano Bruno’s influence, 1869 57 p[eter] a[ugustin] daniel, notes and conjectures, 1870 58 george miles, A Review of ‘’Hamlet’. 1870 59 r[obert] g[ordon] latham, the ‘hopelessness’ of Hamlet’s pre-cursors, 1872 60 mary cowden clarke, on Ophelia’s youth, 1873 61 karl elze, the French Hamlet, 1874 62 edward dowden, and mystery, the ‘baffling, vital obscurity of the play’, 1875 63 [francis] frank a[lbert] marshall, ‘the early life’ of Hamlet, 1875 64 hermann ulrici, Hamlet’s ‘double contradiction’, 1876 65 john bulloch, and the Globe edition emendations, 1878 66 j. o. halliwell-phillipps , on Hamlet’s ‘singular determination’, 1879 67 charles cowden clarke and mary cowden clarke, ‘unlocking the treasures of his style’, 1879 Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWith its depiction of the victorious English king, Henry V has divided critical opinion and remains one of the more controversial of Shakespeare''s histories. This new volume in Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition increases our knowledge of how Shakespeare's plays were received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. The volume offers, in separate sections, both critical opinions about the play across the centuries and an evaluation of their positions within and their impact on the reception of the play. The chronological arrangement of the text-excerpts engages the readers in a direct and unbiased dialogue, whereas the introduction offers a critical evaluation from a current stance, including modern theories and methods. Thus the volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the play and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism surrounding it as they have developed from century to century.Trade ReviewEdited by Joseph Candido, the book covers criticism of the play from 1790 to 1945. Candido's wonderfully informative introduction goes further, offering a brisk survey of the earliest criticism to the present day. * The Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsGeneral Editor's Preface General Editors’ Preface to the Revised Series Preface Introduction The Critical Tradition Texts Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMarlene hosts a dinner party in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird (1831- 1904) - the adventurous traveller; Lady Nijo (b1258) - the mediaeval courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell; Pope Joan - the transvestite early female pope and last but not least Patient Griselda, an obedient wife out of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As the evening continues we are involved with the stories of all five women and the impending crisis in Marlene's own life. A classic of contemporary theatre, Churchill's play is seen as a landmark for a new generation of playwrights. It was premiered by the Royal Court in 1982."Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell liTrade Review"Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind." * The Sunday Times, John Peter *

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Book SynopsisHedda is an intelligent and ambitious woman, trapped in the stifling environment of a bourgeois 19th-century marriage. When writer Eilert Loevborg, an old flame returns to Hedda's life with a masterpiece that might threaten her husband's career, Hedda decides to take drastic and fatal action.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewI think this is a really interesting project. The play avoids the obvious and gives a good insight into a range of personal stories, covering detainees from the ANC, the PAC and Black Consciousness (but I think it would be necessary in the introductory essay to give a clear account of the differences and relationships between them, set against the time-line of resistance to apartheid). So it offers a quite varied, significant and 'new' perspective/window on the inmates of Robben Island. And the play does give striking insights into the different groups of prisoners and how they reacted to their situation, as well as into the often ludicrously boneheaded and bureaucratic, and equally often callous and crass, behaviour of the warders and prison system. Professor Ralph Yarrow, University of East Anglia This play deals with an important and engaging topic: the lives and survival strategies of the political prisoners on Robben Island during the apartheid era (with a short reflection on the later betrayal of the ideals that governed those lives). It contains a great deal of fascinating material, based on written accounts of the experiences of prisoners and on interviews conducted by Matthew Hahn with former prisoners. The plays' "hook" is the prisoners' choosing of passages from Shakespeare's Complete Works, surreptitiously passed around the prison. Professor Derek Attridge, University of Warwick

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Book SynopsisThis volume offers an accessible and thought-provoking guide to this major Shakespearean comedy, surveying its key themes and evolving critical preoccupations. It also provides a detailed and up-to-date history of the play's rich stage and screen performance, looking closely at major contemporary performances, including Josie Rourke's film starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones at the Old Vic, and the RSC's recent rebranding of it as a sequel. Moving through to four new critical essays, the guide opens up fresh perspectives, including contemporary directors' deployment of older actors within the lead roles, the play's relationship to Love's Labour's Lost, its presence on Youtube and the ways in which tales and ruses in the play belong to a wider concern with varieties of crime. The volume finishes with a guide to critical, web-based and production-related resources and an annotated bibliography provide a basis for further research.Trade ReviewA commendably comprehensive guide to textual and performance scholarship on the play. * Cahiers Elisabethains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies *Table of ContentsSeries Introduction Timeline Introduction: Deborah Cartmell (De Montfort University, UK) and Peter J. Smith (Nottingham Trent University, UK) The Critical Backstory: Alison Findlay (Lancaster University, UK) Performance History: Kathryn Prince (University of Ottawa, Canada) The State of the Art: Elinor Parsons (De Montfort University, UK) New Directions: Vile Tales in Much Ado About Nothing: Duncan Salkeld (University of Chichester, UK) New Directions: Much Ado About Aging: Liz Schafer (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) New Directions: Much Ado or Love’s Labour’s Won? Does it Matter Which?: Lois Potter (University of Delaware, USA) New Directions: YouTube Much Ado: Christy Desmet (University of Georgia, USA) 'How apt it is to learn': Resources for Staging, Studying, and Teaching Much Ado About Nothing: Brett Hirsch (University of Western Australia) and Sarah Neville (Ohio State University, USA) Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBased on the true story of the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife, her lover and accomplices in 1551, Arden of Faversham is one of the earliest domestic tragedies and a play which has continued to thrill audiences since its first staging. This comprehensive edition situates the play in its social, cultural and political context while exploring its performance and critical history through a range of historical and contemporary productions, including William Poel's Lilies That Fester (1897) and the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2014 production. Throughout, the edition aims to reanimate the play's engagement with the material culture of domestic life, using little-known evidence for the objects and spaces implicated in the murder. The introduction also accounts for recent new thinking about the play's likely authorship, including claims that Shakespeare was a key co-author. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction combined with detailed on-page commentary notes and glosses Trade Review[The editor] combine[s] personal enthusiasm ... with scholarly rigour, and the result is ... useful and enjoyable insights into early modern drama. * The Times Literary Supplement *Richardson’s is a valuable edition of Arden for students, teachers, and scholars, making important contributions to our understanding of the play and no doubt occupying a significant place in editorial history. * Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen *Table of ContentsSeries Preface Introduction Arden of Faversham Appendices Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMichael Neill is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland. He is the author of Issues of Death (1997) and Putting History to the Question (2000). He has edited Anthony and Cleopatra (1994) and Othello (2006) for the Oxford Shakespeare, Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling (2006) for New Mermaids, Massinger's The Renegado (2010) for Arden Early Modern Drama, and Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (2013) for Norton Critical editions. He is currently preparing Webster's The Duchess of Malfi for Norton, and co-editing The Oxford Handbook to Shakespearean Tragedy (with David Schalkwyk).Table of ContentsIntroduction Preface Plot summary Analysis 1. Historical and literary contexts 2. Performance aspects of the text 3. Critical interpretations Resources and annotated bibliography A note on the text The Play

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Book SynopsisThis new Complete Works marks the completion of the Arden Shakespeare Third Series and includes all of Shakespeare's plays, poems and sonnets, edited by leading international scholars. New to this edition are the ''apocryphal'' plays, part-written by Shakespeare: Double Falsehood, Sir Thomas More and King Edward III. The anthology is unique in giving all three extant texts of Hamlet from Shakespeare''s time: the first and second Quarto texts of 1603 and 1604-5, and the first Folio text of 1623.With a simple alphabetical arrangement the Complete Works are easy to navigate. The lengthy introductions and footnotes of the individual Third Series volumes have been removed to make way for a general introduction, short individual introductions to each text, a glossary and a bibliography instead, to ensure all works are accessible in one single volume. This handsome Complete Works is ideal for readers keen to explore Shakespeare''s work and for anyone building theirTrade ReviewAn invaluable possession. Alphabetising the plays makes them much easier to cross reference between texts and the various introductions are a swift reminder of what to look for when encountering the plays, finding a decent middle ground, both scholarly and accessible. * feeling listless *Its design is functional and attractive … a manageable and approachable book, among the most portable of the collected Shakespeares … An unusual feature is the fact that the plays are printed in alphabetical order … This system is an advantage for those consulting references in several works. * Sederi Yearbook *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations General Editors' Preface Introduction Shakespeare's Sonnets A Lover's Complaint Venus and Adonis Lucrece The Passionate Pilgrim The Phoenix and the Turtle All's Well that Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Double Falsehood Hamlet: Second Quarto Hamlet: First Quarto Hamlet: First Folio Julius Caesar King Edward III King Henry IV, Part 1 King Henry IV, Part 2 King Henry V King Henry VI, Part 1 King Henry VI, Part 2 King Henry VI, Part 3 King Henry VIII King John King Lear King Richard II King Richard III Love's Labour's Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Romeo and Juliet Sir Thomas More The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen The Winter's Tale Bibliography Indexes Glossary

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Book SynopsisThis bold new study uses counterfactual thinking to enable us to feel, rather than to explain, Shakespeare's tragedies.

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Book SynopsisThis book brings to light Derrida's rich and thought-provoking discussions of Shakespearean drama.

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Book SynopsisSecond Death seeks to revitalise our understanding of the soul as a philosophically profound, theoretically radical, and ultimately-and counterintuitively-theatrically realised concept.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a one-stop-shop for the busy undergraduate studying Shakespeare. Offering detailed guidance to the plays most often taught on undergraduate courses, the volume targets the topics tutors choose for essay questions and is organised to help students find the information they need quickly.Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I:Tragedies; 1. Romeo and Juliet; 2. Hamlet; 3. Othello; 4. Macbeth; 5. King Lear; 6. Anthony and Cleopatra Part II: Comedies; 7. A Midsummer Night's Dream; 8. The Merchant of Venice; 9. Twelfth Night, or What you will; 10. Measure for Measure. Part III: Histories; The Henriad; 12. The Henry VI trilogy and Richard III; Part IV: Late plays; 13. The Winter's Tale; 14. The Termpest Historical Chronology Glossary

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the ways the encounters between modernist theatre makers and Greek tragedy were constitutive in the modernist experiments in performance.

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Book SynopsisBeckett was deeply engaged with the visual arts and individual painters, including Jack B. Yeats, Bram van Velde, and Avigdor Arikha. In this monograph, David Lloyd explores what Beckett saw in their paintings.Trade Review"This highly original constellation of critical dialogues will galvanise Beckett Studies. David Lloyd both disturbs and enhances emerging debates in and among philosophical, ethical, aesthetic and political discourses, as they respond to pressures arising from neo-liberalization on understandings of human subjectivity and its representability. This book reconfigures how Samuel Beckett's work will be seen and read across a range of fields of enquiry." - Victor Merriman, Edge Hill University

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Book SynopsisFollow this vividly recounted ghostly trail through spooky stories from the past and present by Ann Radcliffe, Washington Irving, Emily Bronte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James and Susan Hill.

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Book SynopsisChaste Value reassesses chastity s significance in early modern drama, arguing that presentations of chastity inform the stage s production of early capitalist subjectivity and social difference.

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the complexity and richness of Merchant's Jewish aspect, spanning encounters with Jews and the Hebrew Bible in the early modern world as well as modern adaptations of Shakespeare's play on the Yiddish stage.

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Book SynopsisThis book covers the development of tragedy as a dramatic genre from its earliest examples in the 1560's until the closure of the theatres in 1642.

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Book SynopsisModernism and the Theatre of the Baroque fashions an independent aesthetic for modernist writers and texts that challenges many high modernist qualities promoted by James Joyce and T. S. Eliot.

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Book SynopsisThis book attends to fifty breath-related artworks (including sculpture, painting, new media, sound art, performance art) and contextualises Beckett's 'Breath' within the intermedial and high-modernist discourse.

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Book SynopsisThrough studying Volpone's three bastard children, this book discusses how Jonson's comedies are built upon the tension between death, castration and nothingness on one hand, and the comic slippage of identities in the city on the other.

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Book SynopsisThis Special Issue considers the themes and forms of remembrance in Irish culture from the 17th century to the present moment, from oral depositions to video games, with perspectives of academic critics and culture makers. These essays and responses consider the ways that memory moves transculturally and transhistorically, and how it moves us.

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Book SynopsisIrish Drama and the Other Revolutions shows how Irish playwrights mediated between the sexual and the socialist revolutions, and traces their impact on left theatre in Europe and America from the 1890s to the 1960s.

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