Read more
How to Read Shakespeare offers an approach to Shakespeare through reading and seeing his plays. The assumption is that Shakespeare's plays are fully comprehensible to modern readers and theater-goers and that they can be thoroughly enjoyed. The author approaches the plays creatively without the barriers of academic study. Some of the specific topics studied are Dramatic Conventions, The Poetry of the Theater, Shakespeare's Characters, Structure and Dramatic Scene, The Presented Text, and The World of the Play: Theatrical Significances. How to Read Shakespeare encourages readers to develop their "histrionic imagination."
List of contents
Contents: The book offers a creative, theater-oriented approach to Shakespeare that puts strong emphasis on staging, character, and language. It assumes that Shakespeare's plays are not difficult to understand or esoteric, and it discusses many examples of Shakespeare's theatrical art. The orientation throughout is practical and self-teaching.
About the author
The Author: Maurice Charney, Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University, is also the author of the Harvester Introduction to
Titus Andronicus (1990),
Hamlet's Fictions (1988),
Style in 'Hamlet' (1969), and
Shakespeare's Roman Plays: The Function of Imagery in the Drama (1961). He has also published
Joe Orton (1984) and
Sexual Fiction (1981). Dr. Charney has been President of the Shakespeare Association of America and the Academy of Literary Studies. In 1989 he was awarded the medal of the City of Tours in France.
Report
"øThe Book's! author's purpose is 'to persuade intelligent persons to return to the plays with spontaneous, unacademic enthusiasm', and in this he is likely to suceed." (T.W. Craik, Durham University Journal)
