Description
Book SynopsisIn this volume, Wilson asks why Shakespeare remained so enigmatic about his religious beliefs, and demonstrates how he constructed a self-concealing theatre of darkness, deferral, evasion and disguise. This will be essential reading for all Shakespearean scholars, especially those with an interest in the Bard's Catholic connections.
Trade Review'But whether we can fully subscribe to all of these analogies or not, what always remains convincing is the author's understanding of the serial form and the logic of televisual storytelling, and the analyses point out instances of self-reflexivity in serial television drama with a sensitivity that is always revelatory. If we do not fail to heed the author's warnings about the real intentions of the volume, and we do not try to read the rich web of associations listed for each serial as potential sources or influences, but regard these correspondences indeed as cross-mappings, the volume will offer the reader the true pleasure of a creative and intellectual puzzle ... the volume can offer useful insights to anyone interested in adaptation studies, or who welcomes the challenge of finding traces of the Shakespeare phenomenon in contemporary culture, and most of all, it will delight readers who find pleasure in the rich and diverse world of serial drama available on quality television in the twenty-first century.'Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies -- .
Table of Contents1. Wrapped in a player's hide: Shakespeare's secret history
2. Ghostly fathers: Shakeshafte and the Jesuits
3. Secret as a dumb man: Two comedies of Italy and the genesis of secrecy
4. No news but the old news: Shakespeare and the tragedy of Arden
5. A bloody question: The politics of 'Venus and Adonis'
6. Love in idleness: The stripping of the altars in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
7. Dyed in mummy: 'Othello' and the mulberries
8. The pilot's thumb: 'Macbeth' and the Jesuits
9. Voyage to Tunis: New history and the old world of 'The Tempest'
10. Unseasonable laughter: The context of 'Cardenio'
11. The statute of our queen: Shakespeare's open secret
12. A winter's tale: 'King Lear' in the Pennines
