Speech and Performance in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Plays

Speech and Performance in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Plays
Author: David Schalkwyk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2002-10-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1139434233

David Schalkwyk offers a sustained reading of Shakespeare's sonnets in relation to his plays. He argues that the language of the sonnets is primarily performative rather than descriptive, and bases this distinction on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin. In a wide-ranging analysis of both the 1609 Quarto of Shakespeare's sonnets and the Petrarchan discourses in a selection of plays, Schalkwyk addresses such issues as embodiment and silencing, interiority and theatricality, inequalities of power, status, gender and desire, both in the published poems and on the stage and in the context of the early modern period. In a provocative discussion of the question of proper names and naming events in the sonnets and plays, the book seeks to reopen the question of the autobiographical nature of Shakespeare's sonnets.

The Sonnets: The State of Play

The Sonnets: The State of Play
Author: Hannah Crawforth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2017-06-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1474277144

Shakespeare's Sonnets both generate and demonstrate many of today's most pressing debates about Shakespeare and poetry. They explore history and aesthetics, gender and society, time and memory, and continue to invite divergent responses from critics and poets. This freeze-frame volume showcases the range of current debate and ideas surrounding these still startling poems. Each chapter has been carefully selected for its originality and relevance to the needs of students, teachers, and researchers. Key themes and topics covered include: Textual issues and editing the sonnets Reception, interpretation and critical history of the sonnets The place of the sonnets in teaching Critical approaches and close reading Memorialisation and monument-making Contemporary poetry and the Sonnets All the essays offer new perspectives and combine to give readers an up-to-date understanding of what is exciting and challenging about Shakespeare's Sonnets. The approach, based on an individual poetic form, reflects how the sonnets are most commonly studied and taught.

A Comprehensive Guide to Shakespeare’s Sonnets

A Comprehensive Guide to Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Author: Roland Weidle
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2024-11-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1350382841

This book provides readers with the tools to unravel the complexities of one of the most difficult sonnet sequences, introducing them to the literary tradition, themes, stylistic features and cultural contexts of the genre and the collection, and offering close readings of more than 100 sonnets. This combined approach enables readers not only to disentangle the complex relationships of the poems' characters but also to appreciate their philosophical, sensual, topical and subversive qualities. Of the book's two sections, the first, 'Contexts and Forms', includes chapters on the sonnet tradition, early publication history, the structural features of the sequence and the Shakespearean sonnet, as well as the main characteristics of the dramatis personae. The second section, 'Themes', consists of 5 chapters and explores the theme clusters that can be identified throughout the sequence (preservation, writing, desire, deception, imagination). Additional features of the book include a step-by-step approach to a Shakespeare sonnet, a model interpretation of a sonnet, as well as charts and tables identifying and summarizing the sequence's mini-narratives, groups, addressees and themes. For easy reference, the sonnets discussed in the book are cross-referenced and listed in the index, which also includes key terms and names of works and people. Suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of each chapter, and the annotated bibliography includes brief descriptions of the most useful works for further study.

The Rift in The Lute

The Rift in The Lute
Author: Maximilian de Gaynesford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2017-04-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0192517821

What is it for poetry to be serious and to be taken seriously? What is it to be open to poetry, exposed to its force, attuned to what it says and alive to what it does? These are important questions that call equally on poetry and philosophy. But poetry and philosophy, notoriously, have an ancient quarrel. Maximilian de Gaynesford sets out to understand and convert their mutual antipathy into something mutually enhancing, so that we can begin to answer these and other questions. The key to attuning poetry and philosophy lies in the fact that poetic utterances are best appreciated as doing things. For it is as doing things that the speech act approach in analytic philosophy of language tries to understand all utterances. Taking such an approach, this book offers ways to enhance our appreciation of poetry and to develop our understanding of philosophy. It explores work by a range of poets from Chaucer to Geoffrey Hill and J. H. Prynne, and culminates in an extended study of Shakespeare's Sonnets. What work does poetry set itself, and how does this determine the way it is to be judged? What do poets commit themselves to, and what they may be held responsible for? What role does a poet have, or their audience, or their context, in determining the meaning of a poem, what work it is able to achieve? These are the questions that an attuned approach is able to ask and answer.

The Shakespearean International Yearbook

The Shakespearean International Yearbook
Author: David Schalkwyk
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 470
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1351963554

This eighth volume of The Shakespearean International Yearbook presents a special section on 'European Shakespeares', proceeding from the claim that Shakespeare's literary craft was not just native English or British, but was filtered and fashioned through a Renaissance awareness that needs to be recognized as European, and that has had effects and afterlives across the Continent. Guest editors Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo have constructed this section to highlight both how the spread of 'Shakespeare' throughout Europe has brought together the energies of a wide variety of European cultures across several centuries, and how the inclusion of Shakespeare in European culture has been not only a European but also a world affair. The Shakespearean International Yearbook continues to provide an annual survey of important issues and developments in contemporary Shakespeare studies. Contributors to this issue come from the US and the UK, Spain, Switzerland and South Africa, Canada, The Netherlands, India, Portugal, Greece, France, and Hungary. In addition to the section on European Shakespeares, this volume includes essays on the genre of romance, issues of character, and other topics.

Shakespeare on Toast

Shakespeare on Toast
Author: Ben Crystal
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2015-12-24
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 178578031X

Actor, producer and director Ben Crystal revisits his acclaimed book on Shakespeare for the 400th anniversary of his death, updating and adding three new chapters. Shakespeare on Toast knocks the stuffing from the staid old myth of the Bard, revealing the man and his plays for what they really are: modern, thrilling, uplifting drama. The bright words and colourful characters of the greatest hack writer are brought brilliantly to life, sweeping cobwebs from the Bard – his language, his life, his world, his sounds, his craft. Crystal reveals man and work as relevant, accessible and alive – and, astonishingly, finds Shakespeare's own voice amid the poetry. Whether you're studying Shakespeare for the first time or you've never set foot near one of his plays but have always wanted to, this book smashes down the walls that have been built up around this untouchable literary figure. Told in five fascinating Acts, this is quick, easy and good for you. Just like beans on toast.

The Children's Troupes and the Transformation of English Theater 1509-1608

The Children's Troupes and the Transformation of English Theater 1509-1608
Author: Jeanne McCarthy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2016-11-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1315390809

The Children’s Troupes and the Transformation of English Theater 1509–1608 uncovers the role of the children’s companies in transforming perceptions of authorship and publishing, performance, playing spaces, patronage, actor training, and gender politics in the sixteenth century. Jeanne McCarthy challenges entrenched narratives about popular playing in an era of revolutionary changes, revealing the importance of the children’s company tradition’s connection with many early plays, as well as to the spread of literacy, classicism, and literate ideals of drama, plot, textual fidelity, characterization, and acting in a still largely oral popular culture. By addressing developments from the hyper-literate school tradition, and integrating discussion of the children’s troupes into the critical conversation around popular playing practices, McCarthy offers a nuanced account of the play-centered, literary performance tradition that came to define professional theater in this period. Highlighting the significant role of the children’s company tradition in sixteenth-century performance culture, this volume offers a bold new narrative of the emergence of the London theater.

The Achievement of Robert Weimann

The Achievement of Robert Weimann
Author: Graham Bradshaw
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2010
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781409408581

This issue marks the 10th anniversary of The Shakespearean International Yearbook. On this occasion, the special section celebrates the achievement of senior Shakespearean scholar Robert Weimann, whose work on the Elizabethan theatre and early modern performance culture has so influenced contemporary scholarship. Among the contributors to this issue are Shakespearean scholars from Ireland, Japan, France, Germany, South Africa, UK, and the US.

Critical Essays on Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint

Critical Essays on Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint
Author: Shirley Sharon-Zisser
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2006
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780754603450

A series of readings of Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint, particularly engaging with issues of psychoanalysis and gender, this volume cumulatively builds a detailed picture of the poem, its reception, and its critical neglect. The collection by leading Shakespeareans brings to the poem the attention it deserves for its beauty, its aesthetic, psychological and conceptual complexity, and its representation of its cultural moment.

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare's Poetry

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare's Poetry
Author: Jonathan F. S. Post
Publisher:
Total Pages: 775
Release: 2013-07-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0199607745

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare's Poetry provides the widest coverage yet of Shakespeare's poetry and its afterlife in English and other languages.