Perspective In Shakespeares English Histories

Download or read book Perspective in Shakespeare's English Histories written by Larry S. Champion and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Larry S. Champion examines Shakespeare's English history plays and describes the structural devices through which Shakespeare controls the audience's angle of vision and its response to the pattern of historical events. Champion observes the experimentation between stage worlds and the significance of a dramatic technique unique to the history play—one that combines the detachment of a documentary necessary for a broad intellectual view of history and the simultaneous engagement between character and spectator. Champion sees a conscious bifurcation occurring in Shakespeare's dramaturgy after Richard II. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare continues to focus on the psychological analysis and internalized protagonist which lead to his major tragic achievements. In King John and Henry IV, the playwright develops a middle ground between the polarities of Henry VI, in which the flat, onedimensional characters essentially serve the purposes of the narrative, and the tragedies, in which the spectator's consuming interest is in the developing centralfigure whose critical moments they share. Champion sees Henry V as the culmination of Shakespeare's e fforts in the English history play.

Download or read book Stages of History written by Phyllis Rackin and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phyllis Rackin offers a fresh approach to Shakespeare's English history plays, rereading them in the context of a world where rapid cultural change transformed historical consciousness and gave the study of history a new urgency. Rackin situates Shakespeare's English chronicles among multiple discourses, particularly the controversies surrounding the functions of poetry, theater, and history. She focuses on areas of contention in Renaissance historiography that are also areas of concern in recent criticism-historical authority and causation, the problems of anachronism and nostalgia, and the historical construction of class and gender. She analyzes the ways in which the perfoace of history in Shakespeare's theater participated--and its representation in subsequent criticism still participates--in the contests between opposed theories of history and between the different ideological interests and historiographic practices they authorize. Celebrating the heroic struggles of the past and recording the patriarchal genealogies of kings and nobles, Tudor historians provided an implicit rationale for the hierarchical order of their own time; but the new public theater where socially heterogeneous audiences came together to watch common players enact the roles of their social superiors was widely perceived as subverting that order. Examining such sociohistorical factors as the roles of women and common men and the conditions of theatrical performance, Rackin explores what happened when elite historical discourse was trans porteto the public commercial theater. She argues that Shakespeare's chronicles transformed univocal historical writing into polyphonic theatrical scripts that expressed the contradictions of Elizabethan culture.

Download or read book Shakespeare's Tragic Perspective written by Larry S. Champion and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2012-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work directs attention to the various structural devices by which Shakespeare creates and sustains anticipation in his audience whil simultaneously provoking them to participate in the tragic protagonist's anguish.

Download or read book Shakespeare's Language written by Keith Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Shakespeare's Language, Keith Johnson offers an overview of the rich and dynamic history of the reception and study of Shakespeare's language from his death right up to the present. The historical approach provides a comprehensive overview, plotting the attitudes towards Shakespeare's language, as well as a history of its study. This approach reveals how different cultural, literary and linguistic climates have moulded these attitudes and reflects changing linguistic climates. Shakespeare's Language is therefore not only an essential guide to the language of Shakespeare, but offers crucial insights to broader approaches to language as a whole"--

Download or read book Shakespeare's English Kings written by Peter Saccio and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000-04-20 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far more than any professional historian, Shakespeare is responsible for whatever notions most of us possess about English medieval history. Anyone who appreciates the dramatic action of Shakespeare's history plays but is confused by much of the historical detail will welcome this guide to the Richards, Edwards, Henrys, Warwicks and Norfolks who ruled and fought across Shakespeare's page and stage. Not only theater-goers and students, but today's film-goers who want to enrich their understanding of film adaptations of plays such as Richard III and Henry V will find this revised edition of Shakespeare's English Kings to be an essential companion. Saccio's engaging narrative weaves together three threads: medieval English history according to the Tudor chroniclers who provided Shakespeare with his material, that history as understood by modern scholars, and the action of the plays themselves. Including a new preface, a revised further reading list, genealogical charts, an appendix of names and titles, and an index, the second edition of Shakespeare's English Kings offers excellent background reading for all of the ten history plays.

Download or read book Engendering a Nation written by Jean E. Howard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engendering a Nation adopts a sophisticated feminist analysis to examine the place of gender in contesting representations of nationhood in early modern England. Plays featured include: * King John * Henry VI, Part I * Henry VI, Part II * Henry, Part III * Richard III * Richard II * Henry V. It will be a must for students and scholars interested in the cultural and social implications of Shakespeare today.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays written by Michael Hattaway and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-12-05 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description (unedited publisher data) Shakespeare's history plays have been performed more in recent years than ever before, in Britain, North America, and in Europe. This volume provides an accessible, wide-ranging and informed introduction to Shakespeare's history and Roman plays. It is attentive throughout to the plays as they have been performed over the centuries since they were written. The first part offers accounts of the genre of the history play, of Renaissance historiography, of pageants and masques, and of women's roles, as well as comparisons with history plays in Spain and the Netherlands. Chapters in the second part look at individual plays as well as other Shakespearean texts which are closely related to the histories. The Companion offers a full bibliography, genealogical tables, and a list of principal and recurrent characters. It is a comprehensive guide for students, researchers and theatre-goers alike.