Shakespeare, the Queen s Men, and the Elizabethan Performance of - Histor

"Longing on a large scale is what makes history." Don DeLillo, Underworld-- In his 1589 treatise The Arte of English Poesie, George Puttenham diagnosed the limited ability of humans to perceive history. The past, according to Puttenham, is that which "weare not able [ . . . ] to attaine to the knowledge of, by any of our ences." History is defined by its inalienable absence. It exists only in forms of textual or pictorial representation, such as prose works, poetry, and illustrations, or in embodied acts such as storytelling and theatrical playing. In sixteenth-century England, these forms flourished as varying responses to a heightened awareness of the absence of history, an awareness that the intellectual ambitions of the Renaissance precipitated. Of all the forms of history, performance alone supplies a pretense of sensual contact with the vanished past through the bodies that move and speak on stage. The history plays that I consider in this book, from the repertory of the Queen's Men and by Shakespeare, grew out of a vibrant Elizabethan historical culture, and they in turn helped to shape a new historical outlook"--Provided by publisher.

Product details

• Authors: Brian Walsh, Brian (Assistant Professor Walsh, Walsh Brian
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.09.2013
• EAN: 9781107629066
• ISBN: 978-1-107-62906-6
• No. of pages: 246
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; English, Theatre Studies, Literature & literary studies, Literature: history & criticism, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Literary studies: plays and playwrights