Customer Reviews (2)

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Rob Watson is probably the greatest mind in America. There is very little else I can say

C-sections, Prodigal sons, Ambition:Read This Book
With his sword, Macbeth hacks a passage through the enemy and unseams the traitor Macdonwald from the nave to the chops.He emerges from the battle like a man newborn (but into what?) and gets a new title:Thane of Cawdor.In *Coriolanus* Caius Martius runs through the gates ("gates"are a familiar Renaissance term for female genitalia) of Corioles, emergesvery bloody and very triumphant and gets a new name:Coriolanus.Thus,goes Watson's provocative and compelling argument, both men cut themselvesoff from family names and through the violent action reminiscent of aself-inflicted C-section (remember Macbeth's hacking away at that fleshlypassage) make themselves anew.Problems follow.Not merely because thesemen are ambitious, but because, as endless numbers of Elizabethan prodigalson tales point out (Watson has really done his research), you just can'tget away from family.You're linked whether or not you like it, and, forthat matter, whether or not you're a tragic hero or a college student whohas to go home for Thanksgiving.Watson deals with other plays, but histreatment of these is most compelling and far more subtle than I canindicate here. This book won a prize when it came out:best book producedby Harvard University Press.The prize is well-deserved.Having read*Shakespeare and the Hazards of Ambition*, I have never been able to teachthese plays in the same way again.This book almost lets the reader seetoo much -- it gives me the shivers.And it belongs on every seriousscholar's shelf. ... Read more

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When Shakespeare's John of Gaunt refers to England as 'this sceptred isle', he glosses over a fact of which Shakespeare's original audience would have been acutely conscious, which was that England was not an island at all, but had land borders with Scotland and Wales. Together with the narrow channels separating the British mainland from Ireland and the continent, these were the focus of acute, if intermittent, unease during the early modern period. This book analyses works by not only Shakespeare but also his contemporaries to argue that many of the plays of Shakespeare's central period, from the second tetralogy to Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, engage with the idea of England's borders. But borders, it claims, are not only of geopolitical significance: in Shakespeare's imagination and indeed in that of his culture, eschatological overtones also accrue to the idea of the border, not least because the countries of the Celtic fringe were often discussed in terms of the supernatural and fairy lore and, in particular, the rivers which were often used as boundary markers were invested with heavily mythologized personae.Thus Hopkins shows that the idea of the border becomes a potent metaphor for exploring the spiritual uncertainties of the period, and for speculating on what happens in 'the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns'. At the same time, the idea that a thing can only really be defined in terms of what lies beyond it provides a sharply interrogating charge for Shakespeare's use of metatheatre and for his suggestions of a world beyond the confines of his plays. ... Read more

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For most Renaissance English thinkers, queenship was a catastrophe, a political accident that threatened to emasculate an entire nation. But some English poets and playwrights proved more inventive in their responses to female authority.

In Showing Like a Queen, Katherine Eggert argues that Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton turned the political problem of queenship to their advantage by using it as an occasion to experiment with new literary genres. Unlike other critics who have argued that a queen provoked only anxiety and defensiveness in her male subjects, Eggert demonstrates that even after her death Elizabeth I's forty-five-year reign enabled writers to entertain the fantasy of a counterpatriarchal realm.

Eggert traces a literary history of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in which the destabilizing anomaly of female rule enables Spenser to reshape the genre of epic romance and gives Shakespeare scope to create the ruptured dynastic epic of the history plays, the psychologized tragedy of Hamlet, and the feminized tragedies of "Antony and Cleopatra" and "The Winter's Tale." Turning to the second half of the seventeenth century, Eggert reveals how even after more than sixty years of male governance, Milton bases his marital epic Paradise Lost upon the formulae of queenship.

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In The Building in the Text, Roy Eriksen shows that Renaissance writers conceived of their texts in accordance with architectural principles. His approach opens the way to wide-ranging discussions of the structure and meaning of a variety of literary texts and also provides new insights into the famed architectural ekphrases of Alberti and Vasari. Analyzing such words as 'plot,' 'topos,' 'fabrica,' and 'stanza,' Eriksen discloses the fundamental spatial symmetries and complexities in the writings of Ariosto, Shakespeare, and Milton, among other major figures. Ultimately, his book uncovers and clarifies a tradition of literary architecture that is rooted in antiquity and based on correspondences regarded as ordering principles of the cosmos. Eriksen's book will be of interest to art historians, historians of literature, and those concerned with the classical heritage, rhetoric, music, and architecture. ... Read more

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In this useful guide, Paul Cantor provides a clearly structured introduction to Shakespeare's most famous tragedy. Cantor examines Hamlet's status as tragic hero and the central enigma of the delayed revenge in the light of the play's Renaissance context. He offers students a lucid discussion of the dramatic and poetic techniques used in the play. In the final chapter he deals with the uniquely varied reception of Hamlet on the stage and in literature generally from the seventeenth century to the present day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Hamlet in a Renaissance context
This is a great introduction to the play within a Reniassance context. The author does an admirable job in reconstructing the historical and literary contexts surrounding Hamlet. For example, the conflict which the play embodies between classical ideals of heroism and Christian skepticism is well-developed. Overall, this is the best place to begin any study of Hamlet, and it may be all you'll need. The language is clear and concise, in contrast to the pompous jargon-laden prose of so many "post-modern'" critics. Well-written, well-argued, well-informed: one of the best works available on this quintessential Renaissance play.

An intriguing introductory work
This is an outstanding book/monograph on that famously puzzling play of Shakespeare.Best of all is that this introduction to Hamlet includes--however briefly--astute comparisons between dialogue in WilliamShakespeare's Hamlet and in Samuel Beckett's work in general.That isbound to encourage the student or general reader to make some comparativeinvestigations of his own.And that isn't the only time Cantor makes suchan intriguing, sound observation.Shakespeare has a good steward here.

Great
This is the best boook on Hamlet available. No brief post can do itjustice. If you are a student of Hamlet, get this book. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Shakespeare Studies, published by Associated University Presses on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 2651 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: British Identities and English Renaissance Literature.(Book Review)
Author: Paul E.J. Hammer
Publication: Shakespeare Studies (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: Associated University Presses
Volume: 32Page: 325(7)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Short essay on "the proposal to disinter them, considered in relatio to their possible bearing on his portraiture". According to Wikipedia: "William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright." ... Read more

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School-oriented criticism. According to Wikipedia: "William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright." ... Read more

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Michael Schoenfeldt's fascinating study explores the close relationship between selves and bodies, psychological inwardness and corporeal processes, as they are represented in English Renaissance literature. After Galen, the predominant medical paradigm of the period envisaged a self governed by humors, literally embodying inner emotion by locating and explaining human passion within a taxonomy of internal organs and fluids. It thus gave a profoundly material emphasis to behavioral phenomena, giving the poets of the period a vital and compelling vocabulary for describing the ways in which selves inhabit and experience bodies. ... Read more

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Great work!
Schoenfeldt masterfully combines a sophisticated literary analysis with the cultural prevalence of humoral medicine to provide real insight into the ways that people experienced and expressed their identities in earlymodern England.His book is well written, well considered, and should bewell received.Hooray! ... Read more

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According to the introducton "Lewis Theobald's edition of Shakespeare (1734) is one cornerstone of modern Shakespearian scholarshp and hence of English iterary scholarship in general." According to Wikipedia: "Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] – 13 December 1784) was an English author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history" He is also the subject of one of the most celebrated biographies in English, James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Boswell's Life, along with other biographies, documented Johnson's behaviour and mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS), a condition unknown to 18th-century physicians. He presented a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics were confusing to some on their first encounter with him." ... Read more

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This Kindle book includes: Sonnets, A Lover's Complaint, The Passionate Pilgrim, The Rape of Lucrece, and Venus and Adonis. According to Wikipedia: "William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright." ... Read more

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From the Introduction:"The theory that Francis Bacon was, in the main, the author of
"Shakespeare's plays," has now been for fifty years before the learned world.Its advocates have met with less support than they had reason to expect.Their methods, their logic, and their hypotheses closely resemble those applied by many British and foreign scholars to Homer; and by critics of the very Highest School to Holy Writ.Yet the Baconian theory is universally rejected in England by the professors and historians of English literature; and generally by students who have no profession save that of Letters.The Baconians, however, do not lack the countenance and assistance of highly
distinguished persons, whose names are famous where those of mere men of letters are unknown; and in circles where the title of "Professor" is not duly respected." ... Read more

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According to Wikipedia: "William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright." According to Wikipedia: "Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] – 13 December 1784) was an English author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history" He is also the subject of one of the most celebrated biographies in English, James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Boswell's Life, along with other biographies, documented Johnson's behaviour and mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS), a condition unknown to 18th-century physicians. He presented a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics were confusing to some on their first encounter with him." ... Read more

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Plots of Shakespeare's plays told as stories for children. Based on customer feedback, we reformatted this book, adding an active (hyperlinked) Table of Contents/.Click on a chapter to go to it, and use the Back button to go back to the Table of Contents. We made this change on 5/31/2008.If you bought this book before then, you should be able to download the new version at no extra charge. (The product number, ASIN, is the same.) ... Read more

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Johnson published his annotated edition of Shakespeare's Plays in 1765. It includes notes aboutMeasure for Measure,Henry IV, Henry V,King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello. ... Read more