Shakespeare's comedies / edited by Emma Smith.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Smith, Emma, 1970-

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Blackwell guides to criticism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Plays--Selections.

Shakespeare, William.

Comedy.

Physical Description:

ix, 310 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2004.

Summary:

Criticism of Shakespeare's comedies has shifted from stressing their light-hearted and festive qualities to giving a stronger sense of their dark aspects and their social resonances. This volume introduces the key critical debates under five headings: genre, language, gender and sexuality, history and politics, and performance.

The Guide serves students of Shakespeare in two ways. First, by presenting ten recent critical interventions in the field of Shakespeare studies, it provides an up-to-date compendium of current scholarship. All the articles are contextualized with brief critical overviews and annotated suggestions for further reading. An additional chapter on pre-twentieth-century criticism is mainly in narrative form but excerpts significant early views by critics, including Johnson, Hazlitt and Coleridge. Thus, secondly, the volume acts as a guide to further reading to help students extend their knowledge of Shakespeare criticism.

Contents:

1 The Development of Criticism of Shakespeare's Comedies 1

2 Genre 29

Marriage as Comic Closure / Lisa Hopkins 36

False Immortality in Measure for Measure / Robert N. Watson 54

3 Language 81

Here Follows Prose / Russ McDonald 87

Transfer of Title in Love's Labour's Lost / Katharine Eisaman Maus 112

4 Gender and Sexuality 132

Helena's Bed-trick / David McCandless 139

The Homoerotics of Shakespearian Comedy / Valerie Traub 164

5 History and Politics 192

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? / Kim F. Hall 198

Bottom's Up / Annabel Patterson 220

6 Performance 242

Kate: Interpreting the Silence / Carol Rutter 250

As You Like It / Penny Gay 273.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0631220119

0631220127

OCLC:

51336530