Shakespeare's Dramatic GenresOxford Shakespeare Topics provides students, teachers, and interested readers with short books on important aspects of Shakespeare criticism and scholarship. Each book is written by an authority in its field, and combines accessible style with original discussion of its subject. Notes and a critical guide to further reading equip the interested reader with the means to broaden research. The history of the genres, or kinds, of drama is one of contradictory traditions and complex cultural assumptions. The divisions established by the original edition of Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (the First Folio, 1623) give shape to whole curricula; but, as Lawrence Danson reminds us in this lively book, there is nothing inevitable, and much unsatisfying, about that tripartite scheme. Yet students of Shakespeare cannot avoid thinking about questions of genre; often they are the unspoken reason why classrooms full of smart people fail to agree on basic interpretative issues. Danson's guide to the kinds of Shakespearian drama provides an accessible account of genre-theory in Shakespeare's day, an overview of the genres on the Elizabethan stage, and a provocative look at the full range of Shakespeare's comedies, histories, and tragedies. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 20
Page 22
... Aristotle's Poetics became very prominent as a direct source of ideas in early - modern European thought . The Roman ... Aristotle ; and Jon- son , in the collection of critical observations called Discoveries , shows that he knows ...
... Aristotle's Poetics became very prominent as a direct source of ideas in early - modern European thought . The Roman ... Aristotle ; and Jon- son , in the collection of critical observations called Discoveries , shows that he knows ...
Page 23
... Aristotle , yet his genial epistle could be read as more , rather than less , prescriptive than Aristotle . In their discussions of plot - what Aristotle calls ' the imitation of an action ' - both Aristotle and Horace stress an ideal ...
... Aristotle , yet his genial epistle could be read as more , rather than less , prescriptive than Aristotle . In their discussions of plot - what Aristotle calls ' the imitation of an action ' - both Aristotle and Horace stress an ideal ...
Page 27
... Aristotle calls hamartia . Again , a key term in the critical tradition is susceptible to significantly different interpretations . The most drastic swerve in the word's history came from its use in the Greek New Testament to mean the ...
... Aristotle calls hamartia . Again , a key term in the critical tradition is susceptible to significantly different interpretations . The most drastic swerve in the word's history came from its use in the Greek New Testament to mean the ...
Contents
The Genres Staged | 30 |
Mr William Shakespeares Comedies | 57 |
History | 86 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
action appear Aristotle audience authority become beginning called chapter characters claim comedy comes comic contemporaries conventions create Cressida critics crown dead death desire distinction dramatic Elizabeth Elizabethan English fact Falstaff father figure final Folio genre gives Hamlet happens happy Henry hero history plays Holinshed idea identity individual instance John Jonson keep kind King Lear language later less literally live London look lovers Macbeth marriage matter means Measure mind moral murder nature never Night Othello Oxford person Plautus playwrights plot political possibilities Press problem produce question recognize response revenge rhetoric Richard romances rules scene seems sense Shake Shakespeare Shakespearian social sources speak stage stand story succession Tale tells theory things thou tragedy tragic turn Twelfth whole writing written York young