Shakespeare and Senecan Tragedy

A new approach to understanding the relationship between Shakespearean tragedy and Senecan tragedy, this book has implications for our understanding Shakespeare's major tragedies, for our understanding of tragedy as a genre, and for our understanding of early modern classical reception.

List of contents

1. Shakespeare and the resources of Senecan tragedy; 2. Richard III as Senecan history; 3. Seneca and the modernity of Hamlet; 4. Seneca and the antisocial in King Lear; 5. Republican Coriolanus and Imperial Seneca; 6. Seneca, Titus, and Imperial globalization; 7. Senecan Othello and the Republic of Venice.

About the author

Curtis Perry is Professor of English with an appointment in the Classics Department at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of various publications, including The Making of Jacobean Culture (Cambridge, 1997) and Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2006).

Summary

Shakespeare's tragic characters have often been seen as forerunners of modern personhood. It has been assumed that Shakespeare was able to invent such lifelike figures in part because of his freedom from the restrictions of classical form. Curtis Perry instead argues that characters such as Hamlet and King Lear have seemed modern to us in part because they are so robustly connected to the tradition of Senecan tragedy. Resituating Shakespearean tragedy in this way - as backward looking as well as forward looking - makes it possible to recover a crucial political dimension. Shakespeare saw Seneca as a representative voice from post-republican Rome: in plays such as Coriolanus and Othello he uses Senecan modes of characterization to explore questions of identity in relation to failures of republican community. This study has important implications for the way we understand character, community, and alterity in early modern drama.

Foreword

Perry reveals Shakespeare derived modes of tragic characterization, previously seen as presciently modern, via engagement with Rome and Senecan tragedy.

Product details

• Authors: Curtis Perry, Curtis (University of Illinois) Perry, Perry Curtis
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2022
• EAN: 9781108791618
• ISBN: 978-1-108-79161-8
• No. of pages: 306
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Relating to Shakespeare / Shakespearean