Shakespeare and outsiders / Marianne Novy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Novy, Marianne, 1945- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Oxford Shakespeare topics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters--Outsiders.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Criticism and interpretation.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Criticism and interpretation.

Outsiders in literature.

Physical Description:

viii, 203 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Some of Shakespeare's most memorable characters are treated as outsiders in at least part of their plays-Othello, Shylock, Malvolio, Katherine (the 'Shrew'), Edmund, Caliban, and many others. Marked as different and regarded with hostility by some in their society, many of these characters have become icons of group identity. While many critics use the term 'outsider', this is the first book to analyse it as a relative identity and not a fixed one, a position that characters move into and out of, to show some characters affirming their places as relative insiders by the way they treat others as more outsiders than they are, and to compare characters who are outsiders not just in terms of race and religion but also in terms of gender, age, poverty, illegitimate birth, psychology, morality, and other issues. Are male characters who love other men outsiders for that reason in Shakespeare? How is the suspicion of women presented differently than suspicion of racial or religious outsiders? How do the speeches in which various outsiders stand up for the rights of their group compare? Can an outsider be admired? How and why do the plays shift sympathy for or against outsiders? How and why do they show similarities between outsiders and insiders? With chapters on Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, The Tempest, and women as outsiders and insiders, this book considers such questions with attention both to recent historical research on the situation of various kinds of outsiders in Shakespeare's time, and to specifics of the language of Shakespeare's plays and how they work on stage and screen. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Merchant of Venice and its Pressured Conversions 17

2 Outsiders and the Festive Community in Twelfth Night 47

3 Women as Outsiders and Insiders in Shakespeare 69

4 Othello and Other Outsiders 87

5 King Lear. Outsiders in the Family and in the Kingdom 121.

ISBN:

9780199642359

0199642354

OCLC:

828415655