As You Like It 2009 Edition

Includes a new section on recent critical interpretations, stage productions and films of the play, as well as fresh illustrations.

As You Like It: Language and Writing explores one of Shakespeare's best-known comedies. It considers the literary and theatrical contexts in which Shakespeare was writing; examines, in detail, the different forms of language used in the play and considers ways in which language and meaning have changed over time, and are affected by performance. Each chapter contains a 'Writing matters' section which provides suggestions for activities that can further enhance a student's understanding of the play. This informative guide to Shakespeare's popular comedy equips students with the critical skills to analyze its language, structure and themes and to expand and enrich their own responses to the play.

As You Like It is a popular text for study by secondary students the world over. This edition includes illustrations, preliminary notes, reading lists (including websites) and classroom notes.

A pastoral comedy written by William Shakespeare, As You Like It is regarded as one of his greatest comedies for more than four centuries now. The play is set up mostly in the Forest of Arden, and it narrates the story of Rosalind and Celia's experiences with disguises and desires. While the readers also remain engaged with the issues of primogeniture and exile informing the tensions between the two sets of brothers Oliver-Orlando and Duke Senior (Ferdinand)-Duke Frederick, respectively, the play’s true captivating nature is lent by characters like Audrey, Silvius, Phoebe and Adam, who come from the lower social strata. The play ends on a note of forgiveness, reunion and understanding. The analysis of ‘The idea of the pastoral’ and ‘The operations of gender’, both the primary subjects of criticism, have been given a special focus in the two extremely informative critical essays included at the end of the book. Key Features • Fully-annotated text explained in an easy-to-understand language. • Detailed introduction to the play encourages readers to critically examine the background and the various aspects of the play. • Act-wise Summary given at the end of each Act.

Shakespeare was fascinated by law, which permeated Elizabethan everyday life. The general impression one derives from the analysis of many plays by Shakespeare is that of a legal situation in transformation and of a dynamically changing relation between law and society, law and the jurisdiction of Renaissance times. Shakespeare provides the kind of literary supplement that can better illustrate the legal texts of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. There was a strong popular participation in the system of justice, and late sixteenth-century playwrights often made use of forensic models of narrative. Uncertainty about legal issues represented a rich potential for causing strong reactions in the public, especially feelings concerning the resistance to tyranny. The volume aims at highlighting some of the many legal perspectives and debates emplotted in Shakespearean plays, also taking into consideration the many texts that have been produced during the latest years on law and literature in the Renaissance.

This essential guide provides a comprehensive survey of the most important criticism surrounding As You Like It, one of Shakespeare's most popular and engaging comedies, from the earliest appraisals through to 21st century scholarship. Dana Aspinall outlines, assesses and explores the key critical issues, including As You Like It and the genre of comedy; Shakespeare's adaptation of sources; gender, love and marriage; and interrogations of power. Highlighting how critical and scholarly studies of As You Like It continue to enrich our understanding of this complex and popular play, this guide is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of English literature, teachers, researchers, scholars, and lovers of Shakespeare everywhere.

What do audiences do as they watch a Shakespearean play? What makes them respond in the ways that they do? This book examines a wide range of theatrical productions to explore the practice of being a modern Shakespearean audience. It surveys some of the most influential ideas about spectatorship in contemporary performance studies, and analyses the strategies employed both in the texts themselves and by modern theatre practitioners to position audiences in particular ways.