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 20
... claim to happy inclusiveness as surely as Hamlet's grave- digger challenges tragedy's claim that death is an ennobling consum- mation devoutly to be wished . In its picture of the physical theatre itself , Jonson's title - page ...
... claim to happy inclusiveness as surely as Hamlet's grave- digger challenges tragedy's claim that death is an ennobling consum- mation devoutly to be wished . In its picture of the physical theatre itself , Jonson's title - page ...
Page 108
... claim to the throne is justified because it is part of God's long - term plan , even if his claim does not resolve the legitimacy issue that began with Henry IV's usurpation . But a providentialist view of the two tetralogies as a ...
... claim to the throne is justified because it is part of God's long - term plan , even if his claim does not resolve the legitimacy issue that began with Henry IV's usurpation . But a providentialist view of the two tetralogies as a ...
Page 109
... claim than Henry , who is the crowned king by right of possession . Which historical right , of actual possession or of lineage , should prevail ? At the battle of Shrewsbury the royalist forces adopt a com- mon military tactic : King ...
... claim than Henry , who is the crowned king by right of possession . Which historical right , of actual possession or of lineage , should prevail ? At the battle of Shrewsbury the royalist forces adopt a com- mon military tactic : King ...
Contents
The Genres Staged | 30 |
Mr William Shakespeares Comedies | 57 |
History | 86 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
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