Search results for ""Author Richard Wilson""

Free Will: Art and power on Shakespeare’s stage is a study of theatre and sovereignty that situates Shakespeare’s plays in the contraflow between two absolutisms of early modern England: the aesthetic and the political. Starting from the dramatist’s cringing relations with his princely patrons, Richard Wilson considers the ways in which this ‘bending author’ identifies freedom in failure and power in weakness by staging the endgames of a sovereignty that begs to be set free from itself. The arc of Shakespeare’s career becomes in this comprehensive new interpretation a sustained resistance to both the institutions of sacred kingship and literary autonomy that were emerging in his time. In a sequence of close material readings, Free Will shows how the plays instead turn command performances into celebrations of an art without sovereignty, which might ‘give delight’ but ‘hurt not’, and ‘leave not a rack behind’.Free Will is a profound rereading of Shakespeare, art and power that will contribute to thinking not only about the plays, but also about aesthetics, modernity, sovereignty and violence.

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It's a grim fact that the world isn't as nice as it used to be. People are ruder, more greedy, more selfish and more violent. And even though those hardback retro books with flock covers and embossed titles look nice, they won't help turn back the clock. Making a tin-can telephone, skimming stones and whittling wood isn't going to bring world peace. In fact, the world is only made more dangerous by people making their own bunsen burners and careering down hills in home made soap-box carts. Well, here's an alternative book for boys – one that teaches us the joy and pleasure of staying indoors, keeping safe and staying out of trouble. Included within is Richard's hilarious thoughts on home made fun, snooping, wholesome entertainment, good old fashioned adventure, bonding holidays with dad and useful information on the nutters throughout history who have made life much more dangerous for us because of their idiocy.

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Since 1888, Rangers and Celtic football clubs have been locked into an intense and frequently explosive rivalry: Rangers the product of West Scotland's Protestant establishment, Celtic the team founded to raise money for the Catholic underclass of Glasgow.On 2 January 2010 the two teams met in the Old Firm's New Year Derby, a fixture that had been banned for ten years because of the trouble it brought with it. Richard Wilson puts that game at the centre of a book which delves into the history and widens out to the cultural resonance of the fixture within Scotland. It is a potent mix of close-up observation and big-picture thinking, with insight, understanding and depth.

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Free Will: Art and power on Shakespeare’s stage is a study of theatre and sovereignty that situates Shakespeare’s plays in the contraflow between two absolutisms of early modern England: the aesthetic and the political. Starting from the dramatist’s cringing relations with his princely patrons, Richard Wilson considers the ways in which this ‘bending author’ identifies freedom in failure and power in weakness by staging the endgames of a sovereignty that begs to be set free from itself. The arc of Shakespeare’s career becomes in this comprehensive new interpretation a sustained resistance to both the institutions of sacred kingship and literary autonomy that were emerging in his time. In a sequence of close material readings, Free Will shows how the plays instead turn command performances into celebrations of an art without sovereignty, which might ‘give delight’ but ‘hurt not’, and ‘leave not a rack behind’.Free Will is a profound rereading of Shakespeare, art and power that will contribute to thinking not only about the plays, but also about aesthetics, modernity, sovereignty and violence.

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In Worldly Shakespeare Richard Wilson proposes that the universalism proclaimed in the name of Shakespeare's playhouse was tempered by his own worldliness, the performative idea that runs through his plays, that if 'All the world's a stage: then 'all the men and women in it' are 'merely players'. Situating this playacting in the context of current concerns about the difference between globalisation and mondialisation, the book considers how this drama offers itself as a model for a planet governed not according to universal toleration, but the right to offend: 'But with good will'. For when he asks us to think we 'have but slumbered' throughout his offensive plays, Wilson suggests, Shakespeare is presenting a drama without catharsis, which anticipates post-structuralist thinkers like Jacques Ranciere and Slavoj Ziiek, who insist the essence of democracy is dissent, and 'the presence of two worlds in one'. Living out his scenario of the guest who destroys the host, by welcoming the religious terrorist, paranoid queen, veiled woman, papist diehard or puritan fundamentalist into his play-world, Worldly Shakespeare concludes, the i dramatist instead provides a pretext-for our globalised communities in a time of Facebook and fatwa, as we also come to depend on the right to offend 'with our good will'.

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It is no secret that the burning of fossil fuels causes air pollution and adversely affects the health of the human population. Over the last 10 years, research has been providing new insight about the health consequences of particulate air pollution. Generated by the use of fossil energy, respirable-sized particles pose a major threat to our environment and health. In this book the hypothesis that fossil fuels are the primary culprit is examined in detail, including the nature, generation, and transport of particulate air pollution. The authors cite studies on animals and epidemiological studies—those showing acute effects soon after exposure and those exhibiting chronic effects decades later—and include models describing mechanisms by which the effects of fine particulates can be induced. Through its probing inquiry, this book makes clear that present levels of air pollution, even in countries with aggressive environmental controls, are a health hazard that must be contended with.

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This book includes essays by leading authors on Shakespeare drawing on contemporary and early continental philosophy. This collection of 15 essays by celebrated authors in Shakespeare studies and in continental philosophy develops different aspects of the interface between continental thinking and Shakespeare's plays. The authors draw from current continental philosophy (e.g. Lacan, Foucault, Derrida) as well as from the 19th-century continental tradition (e.g. Hegel, Kierkegaard) and from the early roots of continental tradition (e.g. Aristotle, Ibn Sina). The chapters address the span of the tragedies, comedies and history plays in the light of thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Ibn Sina and Jean-Luc Marion, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Schmitt, Arendt, Lacan, Levinas, Foucault and Derrida. The blend of new work and classic position papers provides a thorough overview of Shakespeare and continental thought. It sheds new light on Shakespeare and on continental philosophy. Authors in the collection are leaders in each discipline in the US and UK / Europe and include: Edward S. Casey, Howard Caygill, Paul A Kottman, Julia Reinhard Lupton, Christopher Norris, Nicholas Royle, and, Catherine Belsey.

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Over the centuries, mankind has slowly reduced the risks and hazards that even as recently as a century ago kept life expectancy to a mere 45 years. Our average lifespan has improved to 77 years by remarkable progress in public health and safety. But with this improvement has come a demand for greater efforts to improve both life expectancy and the quality of life. The first edition of this book, published in 1982, was a pioneer in the development of logical, yet simple, analytic tools for discussion of the risks which we all face. This new edition, revised, expanded, and illustrated in detail, should be of value both to professionals in the field and to those who wish to understand these vital issues.

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