Defence of Pretence - Civility and the Theatre in Early Modern England

How the drama of Shakespeare’s time demonstrates the tensions within civility

Is civility merely a matter of reinforcing status and excluding others? Or is it a lubricant in a polarised world, enabling us to overcome tribal loyalties and cooperate for the common good? In A Defence of Pretence, Indira Ghose argues that it is both. Ghose turns to the drama of Shakespeare’s time to explore the notion of civility. The theatre, she suggests, was a laboratory where many of the era’s conflicts played out. The plays test the precepts found in treatises on civility and show that, in the complexity and confusion of human life, moral purity is an illusion. We are always playing roles. In these plays, as in social life, pretence is inescapable. Could it be a virtue?

Civility, Ghose finds, is radically ambiguous. The plays of Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton, grappling with dissimulation, lies and social performance, question the idea of a clear-cut boundary between sincerity and dissembling, between truth and lies. What is decisive is the use to which our play-acting is put. A pretence of mutual respect might serve an ethical end: to foster a sense of common purpose. In life, as in drama, the concept of the common good might be a fiction, but one that is crucial for human society.

Info autore

Indira Ghose

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Indira Ghose, Ghose Indira
• Editore: Princeton University Press
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 02.12.2025
• EAN: 9780691269986
• ISBN: 978-0-691-26998-6
• Pagine: 280
• Categorie: Scienze umane, arte, musica > Scienze linguistiche e letterarie > Letteratura / linguistica inglese; European History, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, LITERARY CRITICISM / Renaissance, Social and cultural history, Literary studies: general, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, European history: Renaissance, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Literary studies: c 1400 to c 1600