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
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Page 94
... Richard is the first of Shakespeare's great self - fashioning characters . Sent before his time into the world scarce half made up ( Richard III , 1. I. 20-1 ) , the shape - shifting Richard will make a virtue of necessity ...
... Richard is the first of Shakespeare's great self - fashioning characters . Sent before his time into the world scarce half made up ( Richard III , 1. I. 20-1 ) , the shape - shifting Richard will make a virtue of necessity ...
Page 95
... Richard killed him ; Thou hadst a Richard , till a Richard killed him . ( 4. 4. 40-3 ) The play's machinery of ghosts and dreams and prophecies tells us that no action is without consequence . Richard III is a tragedy in the sense that ...
... Richard killed him ; Thou hadst a Richard , till a Richard killed him . ( 4. 4. 40-3 ) The play's machinery of ghosts and dreams and prophecies tells us that no action is without consequence . Richard III is a tragedy in the sense that ...
Page 119
... Richard III , however , the tension between individual aspiration and an impersonal order that constrains individuality is almost schematically vocalized in the ... RICHARD ELIZABETH Then by myself- RICHARD Now by the world— Tragedy 119.
... Richard III , however , the tension between individual aspiration and an impersonal order that constrains individuality is almost schematically vocalized in the ... RICHARD ELIZABETH Then by myself- RICHARD Now by the world— Tragedy 119.
Contents
The Genres Staged | 30 |
Mr William Shakespeares Comedies | 57 |
History | 86 |
Copyright | |
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