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 61
... marriage , or the reunion and reconciliation of married couples is in danger of looking less peculiar than it should . At the end of As You Like It , a play in which four couples make their way to the altar , Hymen , the god of marriage ...
... marriage , or the reunion and reconciliation of married couples is in danger of looking less peculiar than it should . At the end of As You Like It , a play in which four couples make their way to the altar , Hymen , the god of marriage ...
Page 62
... marriage into a predatory game . In light of all this , the connection between marriage and Shakespeare's comic plotting requires some explanation . Marriage licenses sexual desire , where ' license ' means both to allow and to control ...
... marriage into a predatory game . In light of all this , the connection between marriage and Shakespeare's comic plotting requires some explanation . Marriage licenses sexual desire , where ' license ' means both to allow and to control ...
Page 64
... marriage to Petruccio , but in none of the comedies does Shakespeare gloss over the social and economic conditions which are being nego- tiated , whether it is a matter of young Fenton , the minor aristocrat , marrying the respectably ...
... marriage to Petruccio , but in none of the comedies does Shakespeare gloss over the social and economic conditions which are being nego- tiated , whether it is a matter of young Fenton , the minor aristocrat , marrying the respectably ...
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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