Male Friendship In Shakespeare And His Contemporaries

Renaissance Humanism developed a fantasy of friendship in which men can be absolutely equal to one another, but Shakespeare and other dramatists quickly saw through this rhetoric and developed their own ideas about friendship more firmly based on a respect for human difference. They created a series of brilliant and varied fictions for human connection, as often antagonistic as sympathetic, using these as a means for individuals to assert themselves in the face of social domination. Whilst the fantasy of equal and permanent friendship shaped their thinking, dramatists used friendship most effectively as a way of shaping individuality and its limitations. Dealing with a wide range of Shakespeare's plays and poems, and with many works of his contemporaries, this study gives readers a deeper insight into a crucial aspect of Shakespeare's culture and his use of it in art.

A study of the topic of friendship in the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

No literary tradition in early modern Europe was as obsessed with the interaction between the native tongue and its dialectal variants, or with ‘foreign’ languages and the phenomenon of ‘translation’, as English Renaissance drama. Originally published as a themed issue of English Text Construction 6:1 (2013), this carefully balanced collection of essays, now enhanced with a new Afterword, decisively demonstrates that Shakespeare and his colleagues were far more than just ‘English’ authors and that their very ‘Englishness’ can only be properly understood in a broader international and multilingual context. Showing a healthy disrespect for customary disciplinary borderlines, Multilingualism in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries brings together a wide range of scholarly traditions and vastly different types of expertise. While several papers venture into previously uncharted territory, others critically revisit some of the loci classici of early modern theatrical multilingualism such as Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Male Friendship and Testimonies of Love in Shakespeare’s England reveals the complex and unfamiliar forms of friendship that existed between men in the late sixteenth century. Using the unpublished letter archive of the Elizabethan spy Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), it shows how Bacon negotiated a path through life that relied on the support of his friends, rather than the advantages and status that came with marriage. Through a set of case-studies focusing on the Inns of Court, the prison, the aristocratic great house and the spiritual connection between young and ardent Protestants, this book argues that the ‘friendship spaces’ of early modern England permitted the expression of male same-sex intimacy to a greater extent than has previously been acknowledged.

The Wounded Hero in Contemporary Fiction tracks the emergence of a new type of physically and/or spiritually wounded hero(ine) in contemporary fiction. Editors, Susana Onega and Jean-Michel Ganteu bring together some of the top minds in the field to explore the paradoxical lives of these heroes that have embraced, rather than overcome, their suffering, alienation and marginalisation as a form of self-definition.

Shakespeare Studies is an international volume published every year in hard cover that contains essays and studies by scholars and cultural historians from both hemispheres. Although the journal maintains a focus on the theatrical milieu of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, it is also concerned with Britain's intellectual and cultural connections to the continent, its sociopolitical history, and its place in the emerging globalism of the period. The journal also includes substantial reviews of significant publications dealing with these issues, as well as theoretical studies relevant to scholars of early modern culture. This issue features another Forum, entitled "The Universities and the Theater." Organized and introduced by John H. Astington, the Forum includes commentary considering the relationship between theater in the universities and the Renaissance public stage. Volume XXXVII also features articles on the Fortune contract, and Titus Andronicus and the New World, as well as a review article on women and the early modern stage. There are nineteen reviews in this volume on such varying topics as angels in the early modern world, Shakespeare and the nature of love, and Shakespeare in French theory. Susan Zimmerman is Professor of English at Queens College, City University of New York. Garrett Sullivan is Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.

MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE DRAMA IN ENGLAND, now over twenty years in publication, is an international journal committed to the publication of essays and reviews relevant to drama and theatre history to 1642. MaRDiE 23 features essays by MacDonald P. Jackson on authorship as related to Shakespeare, Kyd, and Arden of Faversham. James Hirsh considers the editing of Hamlet's 'To be, or not to be' in light of both conventional and emerging editorial theory. Politics and prophecy, as they influence Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay is at the centre of Brian Walsh's contribution, while John Curran uses declamation as a rhetorical strategy in order to focus on character in the Fletcher-Massinger plays. Chris Fitter considers vagrancy and 'vestry values' in Shakespeare's As You Like It and June Schlueter reconsiders the matter of theatrical cartography and The View of London from the North. The collection of reviews range from books on early modern dietaries and Shakespeare's plays to those on male friendship and theatre economics.

Demystifying and contextualising Shakespeare for the twenty-first century, this book offers both an introduction to the subject for beginners as well as an invaluable resource for more experienced Shakespeareans. In this friendly, structured guide, Robert Shaughnessy: introduces Shakespeare’s life and works in context, providing crucial historical background looks at each of Shakespeare’s plays in turn, considering issues of historical context, contemporary criticism and performance history provides detailed discussion of twentieth-century Shakespearean criticism, exploring the theories, debates and discoveries that shape our understanding of Shakespeare today looks at contemporary performances of Shakespeare on stage and screen provides further critical reading by play outlines detailed chronologies of Shakespeare’s life and works and also of twentieth-century criticism The companion website at www.routledge.com/textbooks/shaughnessy contains student-focused materials and resources, including an interactive timeline and annotated weblinks.