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Shakespeare: The Basics is a lively and accessible introduction to reading and studying Shakespeare. Exploring all aspects of Shakespeare's plays, Sean McEvoy considers the language, cultural contexts, and modern interpretations.
Sommario
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: William Shakespeare 1564-2024
Shakespeare’s Life: An Outline
Shakespeare’s Afterlife
Shakespeare Goes to College
Shakespeare 2025
How to Use this Book
PART I
Chapter 1. Shakespeare’s Language
Writing for a Theatre Audience
Box 1.1: Shakespeare’s Audiences
Simple or Complex, the Language is Dramatic
Verse and Prose
Box 1.2: Playtexts in Shakespeare’s Time
Rhetorical Figures and Tropes
Box 1.3: Some Rhetorical Figures and Tropes
Rhetoric and Dramatic Action
Box 1.4: Social Hierarchy in Shakespeare’s England
Chapter 2. Shakespeare’s Theatre
The Open Air Playhouse
Indoor Playhouses
Acting Style
Box 2.1: Males Playing Women
Representation on the Early Modern Stage
Box 2.2: Theatre’s Enemies
Dramatic Forms and Metatheatre
Chapter 3. Shakespeare on the Modern Stage
Paul Robeson’s 1930 Othello
Othello at the National Theatre (2022)
Box 3.1: Shakespeare, Race and Empire
Cheek by Jowl’s 1991 As You Like It
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre (2019)
Chapter 4. The Shakespeare Film
Filming Shakespeare
Tragedy on Screen in 2018 and 2021: King Lear and The Tragedy of Macbeth
Globalized American Shakespeare at the Millennium: Ten Things I Hate About You (1999) and O (2001)
PART II
Chapter 5. Comedy: The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Twelfth Night
Men, Women and Marriage in The Taming of the Shrew
Box 5.1: Women and Marriage in Shakespeare’s England
Language and Power in Measure for Measure
Language and the Outsider in The Merchant of Venice
Humans and Nature in As You Like It
Ambiguity, Language and Desire in Twelfth Night
Chapter 6. The History Plays: Richard II, Henry IV (Part 1) and Henry V
Feudalism in Historical Perspective: Richard II
Box 6.1: Christianity in Shakespeare’s England
Language, Meaning and Historical Change in Richard II
Power and Performance in Henry V and Henry IV, Part 1
Box 6.2: Shakespeare’s Theatre and Political Freedom of Expression
The Subversive Subplot: Henry V and Henry IV, Part 1
Women and Masculinity in the History Plays
Chapter 7. Tragedy: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet
Tragedy and Historical Conflict
Box 7.1: London
Hamlet and Tragic Division
Tragic Kingship in Macbeth
Past, Present and Future in Othello
Unmasking Power in King Lear
Tragedy and Love in Romeo and Juliet
Chapter 8. The Romance Plays: The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest
Female Authority in The Winter’s Tale
Contesting the Female: Miranda in The Tempest
Wonder and Artifice in The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale
Freedom in The Tempest
Romance and Time
Chronology
Glossary
Index
Info autore
Sean McEvoy is a Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, UK. His publications include Tragedy: The Basics (2016), Ben Jonson, Renaissance Dramatist (2008) and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Sourcebook (2006).
Riassunto
Shakespeare: The Basics is a lively and accessible introduction to reading and studying Shakespeare. Exploring all aspects of Shakespeare’s plays, Sean McEvoy considers the language, cultural contexts, and modern interpretations.
