Shakespeare: Poet and Citizen

By:

Kiernan, Victor

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: London: Verso, 1993.Description: ix, 261 pISBN:

9780860913924
0860913929

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

822.33 KIE

Contents:

Part I - A Time Out of Joint Part II - The Histories Part III - Experiments Part IV - The Comedies Part V - Life Unfolding

Summary: In this book the distinguished historian Victor Kiernan makes a case for seeing Shakespeare as a writer profoundly sensitive to the great social and political upheavals through which he lived. Shakespeares poetic and dramatic achievement, Kiernan argues, was not something which transcended his environment but was directly enlarged by his civic consciousness and his critical reactions to a changing social fabric. Shakespeares phase of dramatic activity coincides with the first challenges to the institution of monarchy. Kiernan analyses the cycle of History plays in the light of the demise of feudal allegiances and the emergence of the modern state apparatus. He shows how the far-reaching transformations in social hierarchy which simultaneously began to take place are crucial to an understanding of the Comedies, in which confusion of identity, disguise and cross-dressing are central. And he examines the ways in which womens roles are affected by this nascent individualism, especially in relation to the ideas of romantic love around which the Comedies revolve. Shakespeare: Poet and Citizen draws a vivid portrait of the outstanding dramatist of modernity. Lucid, scholarly and absorbing, it will be a rich resource for both students and the general reader.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Reference Books	Main Library Reference	Reference	822.33 KIE (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		004264

Total holds: 0

Browsing Main Library shelves, Shelving location: Reference, Collection: Reference Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)

Previous								Next
Previous	822.33 GUR Studying Shakespeare : an introduction	822.33 HOL William Shakespeare - A midsummer night's dream	822.33 KAY Shakespeare : his life, work, and era	822.33 KIE Shakespeare: Poet and Citizen	822.33 LEV The life and times of William Shakespeare	822.33 MAC The Bedford companion to Shakespeare : an introduction with documents	822.33 MAH Literature Guide to Romeo and Juliet	Next

Including Bibliography & Index

Part I - A Time Out of Joint
Part II - The Histories
Part III - Experiments
Part IV - The Comedies
Part V - Life Unfolding

In this book the distinguished historian Victor Kiernan makes a case for seeing Shakespeare as a writer profoundly sensitive to the great social and political upheavals through which he lived. Shakespeares poetic and dramatic achievement, Kiernan argues, was not something which transcended his environment but was directly enlarged by his civic consciousness and his critical reactions to a changing social fabric.

Shakespeares phase of dramatic activity coincides with the first challenges to the institution of monarchy. Kiernan analyses the cycle of History plays in the light of the demise of feudal allegiances and the emergence of the modern state apparatus. He shows how the far-reaching transformations in social hierarchy which simultaneously began to take place are crucial to an understanding of the Comedies, in which confusion of identity, disguise and cross-dressing are central. And he examines the ways in which womens roles are affected by this nascent individualism, especially in relation to the ideas of romantic love around which the Comedies revolve.

Shakespeare: Poet and Citizen draws a vivid portrait of the outstanding dramatist of modernity. Lucid, scholarly and absorbing, it will be a rich resource for both students and the general reader.

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