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Shakespeare's tribe : church, nation, and theater in Renaissance England / Jeffrey Knapp.
Table of contents Available online
View onlineVan Pelt Library PR658.R43 K58 2002
Available
Kislak Center for Special Collections - Furness Shakespeare Library (Van Pelt 628) PR658.R43 K58 2002
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Knapp, Jeffrey (Professor of English), author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Religion.
- Shakespeare, William.
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
- Religion.
- English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600--History and criticism.
- English drama.
- Church and state--England--History--16th century.
- Church and state.
- Nationalism and literature.
- History.
- England.
- Church and state--England--History--17th century.
- English drama--17th century--History and criticism.
- Nationalism and literature--England--History.
- Theater--England--History--16th century.
- Theater.
- Theater--England--History--17th century.
- Theater--Religious aspects--Christianity.
- Church and state in literature.
- Nationalism in literature.
- Religion in literature.
- English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan.
- Genre:
- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xvi, 277 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002.
- Summary:
- "Most critics characterize Shakespeare and his tribe of fellow English playwrights and players as resolutely secular, interested in religion only as a matter of politics or as a rival source of popular entertainment. Yet as Jeffrey Knapp demonstrates in this bold new reading, a surprising number of writers throughout the English Renaissance, including Shakespeare himself, thought of plays as supporting the cause of true religion." "To be sure, Renaissance playwrights rarely sermonized in their works, which seemed preoccupied with sex, violence, and crime. And acting during the early modern period was typically regarded as a kind of vice. But scores of people working in theater used their alleged godlessness to advantage, claiming that it enabled them to save wayward souls that the church might otherwise not reach. The stage, they felt, made possible an ecumenical ministry that could help transform Reformation England into a more inclusive Christian society." "Drawing, then, on a variety of celebrated and little-known plays, along with a host of other documents and texts of the English Renaissance, Knapp explores the different assumptions that shaped belief in the theater's religious potential. Shakespeare's Tribe traces the remarkable affinities between ritual and drama; considers the idea of plays as enactments of communion; examines the uncertain relationship between Protestant and national identities; and deals squarely with vexed debates over Shakespeare's religious convictions. What results is an ambitious and wide-ranging work that will profoundly change the way we think about Shakespeare and the world he inhabited."--Jacket.
- Contents:
- Good fellows
- Part one. England and Christendom
- Rogue nationalism
- This blessed plot
- Part two. Church and theater
- Preachers and players
- Pseudo-Christianity.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-266) and index.
- Conference on Christianity & Literature Book of the Year Award, Winner, 2002
- ISBN:
- 0226445690
- 9780226445694
- 9780226445700
- 0226445704
- OCLC:
- 48655906
- Online:
- Contributor biographical information
- Publisher description
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