{"product_id":"shakespeare-and-realism-on-the-politics-of-style-9781683931720","title":"Shakespeare and Realism: On the Politics of Style","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis collection of essays examines the works of the most famous writer of plays in the English language within the most culturally pervasive genre in which they are performed. Though Realist productions of Shakespeare are central to the ways in which his work is produced and consumed in the 21\u003csup\u003est\u003c\/sup\u003e century-and has been for the last 100 years-scholars are divided on the socio-political, historical, and ethical effects of this marriage of content and style. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book is divided into two sections, the first of which focuses on how Realist performance style influences our understanding of Shakespeare’s characters. These chapters engage in close readings of multiple performances, interrogating the ways in which actors’ specific characterizations contribute to extremely varied interpretations of a single character.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second section then considers audiences’ experiences of Shakespearean texts in Realist performance. The essays in this section-all written by theatre directors-imagine out what might constitute Realism. Each chapter focuses on a particular production, or set of productions by a single company, and considers how the practitioners utilized critically informed notions of what constitutes “the real” to reframe what Realism looks like on stage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book of arguments by both theatre practitioners and scholars. Rather than presenting a unified critical position, this collection seeks to stimulate the debate around Realist Shakespeare performance, and to attend to the political consequences of particular aesthetic choices for the audience, as well as for Shakespeare critics and theatre artists. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn her introduction to this brief but fascinating volume, Miller (California Arts Council) writes that the purpose of the book is to examine how \"contemporary practitioners have utilized Shakespearean play texts in ways that illuminate aspects of how realism as a style is currently being fashioned and how and why Shakespeare’s texts are particularly potent vehicles for that fashioning.” The volume is intentionally neither comprehensive nor cohesive; rather it is meant to serve as a starting point for discussion of the intersections of Shakespeare in contemporary performance and realism as genre. The first essay explores the implications of imposing emotional realism on the heroes of the problem plays. The other five essays consider historic productions of Shakespeare during the period that spawned realism and transformed understanding of character; realism and Midsummer Night’s Dream; how King Lear uses realism to create empathy in an audience; and allo-realism in three tragedies (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Titus Andronicus). The book certainly meets its objective of serving as a conversation starter. It also succinctly identifies places where Shakespeare and realism collide to mutual benefit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals. * CHOICE *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJosy Miller\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart 1Realism and Shakespearean Character\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1The Trouble with Bertram: Experiencing Stanislavsky in All’s Well That Ends Well\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoberta Barker and Kim Solga\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2Shakespearean Character at the Fin du Siecle\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter Kanelos\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3Violence and Consensual Imagination in A Midsummer Night’s Dream\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYu Jin Ko\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart 2Shakespearean Realism(s) and the Audience\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4“Never, Never, Never, Never, Never”: On Shakespearean Realism and the Question of Empathy \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJosy Miller\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e5Allo-Realism and Intensive-Extensive Shakespeares: Transversal Theater Company’s Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Titus Andronicus\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSam Kolodezh \u0026amp; Bryan Reynolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e6Directing Realism\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter Lichtenfels\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAppendix A. Theatre, Now: A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorks Cited\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbout the Contributors\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbout the Editors\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fairleigh Dickinson University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51042118369623,"sku":"9781683931720","price":33.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781683931720.jpg?v=1750953067","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/shakespeare-and-realism-on-the-politics-of-style-9781683931720","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}