Author: Rosalie L. Colie Publisher: University of Toronto Press ISBN: 1442654902 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 310
Book Description
The image of the prism, with its multiple refractions, offers some sense of the inexhaustible variety of a work of art. Like a prism, King Lear is attractive; like a prism, it is a multiply shaped thing; like a prism, it is an object of admiration, as well as an instrument of analysis. The essays in this book – forming neither a casebook nor a 'perplex' – were written because their authors wanted to understand something specific about this very complicated play. Throughout, the emphasis is on Shakespeare's consciousness of his craft, on his critical use of the materials, notions, and devices available to him – on the play (prism-like) as an instrument of analysis. Although the different contributors have occasionally influenced one another's readings of the play, the essays were written independently; that they are so mutually supportive is the result of the play's central insistence on its own primary meaning, visible from whatever perspective a serious reader may take.
Author: Jeffrey Kahan Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135973652 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 385
Book Description
Is King Lear an autonomous text, or a rewrite of the earlier and anonymous play King Leir? Should we refer to Shakespeare’s original quarto when discussing the play, the revised folio text, or the popular composite version, stitched together by Alexander Pope in 1725? What of its stage variations? When turning from page to stage, the critical view on King Lear is skewed by the fact that for almost half of the four hundred years the play has been performed, audiences preferred Naham Tate's optimistic adaptation, in which Lear and Cordelia live happily ever after. When discussing King Lear, the question of what comprises ‘the play’ is both complex and fragmentary. These issues of identity and authenticity across time and across mediums are outlined, debated, and considered critically by the contributors to this volume. Using a variety of approaches, from postcolonialism and New Historicism to psychoanalysis and gender studies, the leading international contributors to King Lear: New Critical Essays offer major new interpretations on the conception and writing, editing, and cultural productions of King Lear. This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive anthology of textual scholarship, performance research, and critical writing on one of Shakespeare's most important and perplexing tragedies. Contributors Include: R.A. Foakes, Richard Knowles, Tom Clayton, Cynthia Clegg, Edward L. Rocklin, Christy Desmet, Paul Cantor, Robert V. Young, Stanley Stewart and Jean R. Brink
Author: Kenneth Muir Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521246040 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 118
Book Description
This volume brings together nine essays on King Lear by distinguished scholars, all of which were first published in Shakespeare Survey, the leading journal devoted to Shakespeare studies. A retrospective survey of criticism from 1934 to the present is followed by studies of the play's style and discussion of its background, meaning and theatrical presentation. The volume is illustrated with photographs of post-war productions.
Author: Kenneth John Emerson Graham Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 9780801428715 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 260
Book Description
Graham shows how plainness functions not only as a literary style, but also as a mode of political and religious rhetoric that reflects powerful historical currents.
Author: Steven Urkowitz Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 1400857279 Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 182
Book Description
Of the three texts of King Lear--the Quarto version printed in 1608, the Folio edition of 1623, and the modern composite of these two early texts--it has been assumed that both the Quarto and Folio versions arc distortions of an unblemished original" now lost and that only the modern text accurately approaches Shakespeare's lost original manuscript. Steven Urkowitz argues to the contrary that the Quarto and Folio are simply different stages of Shakespear's writing--an early draft and a final revision--and that they reveal much about his process of composition. Originally published in 1980. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Author: Judy Kronenfeld Publisher: ISBN: Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
Opening the play up to the implications of these contexts and this interpretive theory, she reveals much about Lear, English Reformation religious culture, and the state of contemporary criticism.
Author: Jay leon Halio Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 0313016844 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 144
Book Description
In its timeless exploration of familial and political dissolution, and in its relentless questioning of the apparent moral indifference of the universe, King Lear is Shakespeare's darkest tragedy. It is also one of his most timely, for many of the issues it raises resonate loudly within our own era. Perhaps because of its contemporary relevance, it is one of Shakespeare's most frequently produced, taught, and studied works. And the amount of scholarship on King Lear is exceeded only be the complexity which that scholarship reveals. This book is a lucid and thorough guide to the play's roots and legacy. The volume begins with a discussion of the play's textual history, which is complicated by the different quarto and folio versions. It also addresses the merits of several recent editions. The book then looks at the literary, historical, and cultural contexts that inform the play. This is followed by an examination of Shakespeare's dramatic art, an analysis of the play's themes, and a summary of the different approaches critics have used to elucidate its meaning. A final chapter explores the play's rich production history, and a selected bibliography concludes the volume. As a guide, this reference successfully navigates the tremendous body of available scholarship and is a ready aid for a wide range of readers.
Author: Susan Bruce Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 9780231115292 Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
This Critical Guide helps students sift through and make sense of nearly three centuries of Lear criticism, providing insight into different assessments of the play's merit and its place within Shakespeare's work and the canon of English literature. Highlights include excerpts from the neoclassical and Romantic receptions of King Lear -- material from John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Victor Hugo -- and a discussion of recent and current trends in criticism of the play.
Author: Rosalie L. Colie
Author: Jeffrey Kahan
Author: Kenneth Muir
Author: Kenneth John Emerson Graham
Author: Steven Urkowitz
Author: Judy Kronenfeld
Author: Jay leon Halio
Author: William Shakespeare
Author: Susan Bruce
Author: William Shakespeare