Skepticism and Belonging in Shakespeare''s Comedy

This book recovers a sense of the high stakes of Shakespearean comedy, arguing that the comedies, no less than the tragedies, serve to dramatize responses to the condition of being human, responses that invite scholarly investigation and explanation. Taking its cue from Stanley Cavell's influential readings of Othello and Lear, it argues that where Shakespeare's tragedies might be viewed in Cavellian terms as the drama of skepticism, Shakespeare's comedies then exemplify the drama of acknowledgement. This book offers something new in scholarly and popular understanding of Shakespeare's work, doing so with both philosophical rigor and literary attention to the difficult work of reading.

List of contents

1. Introduction 2. A Defactoist Practice of Literary Scholarship 3. Much Ado About Nothing 4. A Midsummer Night's Dream 5. As You Like It 6. Coda

About the author

Derek Gottlieb is a Research Fellow in the English Department at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He holds PhDs in English Literature and in Education, and has published on teacher training and educational evaluation in addition to Shakespeare.

Product details

• Authors: Derek Gottlieb, Gottlieb Derek
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.09.2015
• EAN: 9781138859555
• ISBN: 978-1-138-85955-5
• No. of pages: 204
• Series: Routledge Studies in Shakespeare
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Post-Structuralism, PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Deconstruction, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, Literary theory, PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Structuralism, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Deconstructionism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Structuralism and Post-structuralism, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Relating to Shakespeare / Shakespearean