Venus’s Palace - Shakespeare and the Antitheatricalists

This book lays bare the dialogue between Shakespeare and critics of the stage, and positions it as part of an ongoing cultural, ethical, and psychological debate about the effects of performance on actors and on spectators.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Theater Controversies in Early Modern England
Playhouse, Prayer-house, Profit, and Plague
Actors and Audience
Chapter 2 True Performing and Verses of Feigning Love: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Early Modern English Antitheatricality
"Verses of Feigning Love"—Poetry in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
"True Performing"—Theater in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Conclusion: Poets and Players
Chapter 3 Hamlet as Shakespeare’s Defense of Theater
Ethical and Ontological Concerns about Theater
The Laughter of the Barren Spectators
Conclusion
Chapter 4 "In My Power": The Tempest as Shakespeare’s Antitheatrical Vision
Theater and Spectacle in The Tempest and in the Antitheatrical Discourse
Music in The Tempest
In Your Power: Shakespeare’s Defense of Music and Drama
Afterword Poets, Pipers, and Players
Index

About the author

Reut Barzilai is a lecturer at the University of Haifa, Israel. She has published articles in the academic journals Shakespeare and Multicultural Shakespeare and written several study guides on Shakespeare for the Open University.

Summary

This book lays bare the dialogue between Shakespeare and critics of the stage, and positions it as part of an ongoing cultural, ethical, and psychological debate about the effects of performance on actors and on spectators.

Product details

• Authors: Reut Barzilai
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.10.2024
• EAN: 9781032442266
• ISBN: 978-1-032-44226-6
• No. of pages: 178
• Weight: 300 g
• Series: Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama
• Subjects: Education and learning > Schoolbooks, general education schools; Fiction > Poetry, drama > Drama; Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, European History, DRAMA / General, HISTORY / Europe / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, Theatre Studies, British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Social and cultural history, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, Plays, Playscripts, Classic and pre-20th century plays, Literary studies: plays and playwrights