Author: David Loewenstein Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 110702661X Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 331
Book Description
This volume freshly illuminates the diversity of early modern religious beliefs, practices and issues, and their representation in Shakespeare's plays.
Author: Kenneth S. Jackson Publisher: ISBN: 9780268032708 Category : Christianity and literature Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Shakespeare and Religion examines the topic of religion in Shakespearean drama from two points of view: the historical, and that of postmodern philosophy and theology.
Author: Dennis Taylor Publisher: Studies in Religion and Litera ISBN: Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 468
Book Description
The question of Shakespeare's Catholic contexts has occupied many scholars in recent years and this study brings together 16 original essays examining Shakespeare's work in the light of revisionist scholarship, from monastic life in 'Measure for Measure' to Puritanism in 'Hamlet'.
Author: Kristen Poole Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521025447 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 292
Book Description
The figure of the puritan has long been conceived as dour and repressive in character, an image which has been central to ways of reading sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history and literature. Kristen Poole's original study challenges this perception arguing that, contrary to current critical understanding, radical reformers were most often portrayed in literature of the period as deviant, licentious and transgressive. Through extensive analysis of early modern pamphlets, sermons, poetry and plays, the fictional puritan emerges as a grotesque and carnivalesque figure; puritans are extensively depicted as gluttonous, sexually promiscuous, monstrously procreating, and even as worshipping naked. By recovering this lost alternative satirical image, Poole sheds new light on the role played by anti-puritan rhetoric. Her book contends that such representations served an important social role, providing an imaginative framework for discussing familial, communal and political transformations that resulted from the Reformation.
Author: J. Mayer Publisher: Springer ISBN: 0230595898 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 245
Book Description
This book throws new light on the issue of the dramatist's religious orientation by dismissing sectarian and one-sided theories, tackling the problem from the angle of the variegated Elizabethan context recently uncovered by modern historians and theatre scholars. It is argued that faith was a quest rather than a quiet certainty for the playwright.
Author: Elizabeth Williamson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317068114 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
Offering fuller understandings of both dramatic representations and the complexities of religious culture, this collection reveals the ways in which religion and performance were inextricably linked in early modern England. Its readings extend beyond the interpretation of straightforward religious allusions and suggest new avenues for theorizing the dynamic relationship between religious representations and dramatic ones. By addressing the particular ways in which commercial drama adapted the sensory aspects of religious experience to its own symbolic systems, the volume enacts a methodological shift towards a more nuanced semiotics of theatrical performance. Covering plays by a wide range of dramatists, including Shakespeare, individual essays explore the material conditions of performance, the intricate resonances between dramatic performance and religious ceremonies, and the multiple valences of religious references in early modern plays. Additionally, Religion and Drama in Early Modern England reveals the theater's broad interpretation of post-Reformation Christian practice, as well as its engagement with the religions of Islam, Judaism and paganism.
Author: Kenneth J. E. Graham Publisher: Early Modern Literature in History ISBN: Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
Challenging dominant views on the subject, this collection considers the relationship of Shakespeare's plays to the religious past and present. Among the contributors are Anthony Dawson, Jeffrey Knapp and Debora Shuger.
Author: Peter Iver Kaufman Publisher: Penn State Press ISBN: 0271069589 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 341
Book Description
For years scholars and others have been trying to out Shakespeare as an ardent Calvinist, a crypto-Catholic, a Puritan-baiter, a secularist, or a devotee of some hybrid faith. In Religion Around Shakespeare, Peter Kaufman sets aside such speculation in favor of considering the historical and religious context surrounding his work. Employing extensive archival research, he aims to assist literary historians who probe the religious discourses, characters, and events that seem to have found places in Shakespeare’s plays and to aid general readers or playgoers developing an interest in the plays’ and playwright’s religious contexts: Catholic, conformist, and reformist. Kaufman argues that sermons preached around Shakespeare and conflicts that left their marks on literature, law, municipal chronicles, and vestry minutes enlivened the world in which (and with which) he worked and can enrich our understanding of the playwright and his plays.
Author: Elizabeth Williamson Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN: 9780754668275 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
The Materiality of Religion in Early Modern English Drama is the first book to present a detailed examination of early modern theatrical properties informed by the complexity of post-Reformation religious practice. The study explores the relationship between popular culture and theatrical performance by considering the social history and dramatic function of certain stage properties, addressing their role as objects of devotion, idolatry, and remembrance on the professional stage.
Author: Kristen Poole Publisher: ISBN: Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
The figure of the puritan has long been conceived as dour and repressive in character, an image which has been central to ways of reading sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history and literature. Kristen Poole's original study challenges this perception arguing that, contrary to current critical understanding, radical reformers were most often portrayed in literature of the period as deviant, licentious and transgressive. Through extensive analysis of early modern pamphlets, sermons, poetry and plays, the fictional puritan emerges as a grotesque and carnivalesque figure; puritans are extensively depicted as gluttonous, sexually promiscuous, monstrously procreating, and even as worshipping naked. By recovering this lost alternative satirical image, Poole sheds new light on the role played by anti-puritan rhetoric. Her book contends that such representations served an important social role, providing an imaginative framework for discussing familial, communal and political transformations that resulted from the Reformation.