Shakespeare's festive comedy : a study of dramatic form and its relation to social custom / C. L. Barber ; with a new foreword by Stephen Greenblatt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barber, C. L. (Cesar Lombardi)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Shakespeare, William.

Literature and society--England--History--16th century.

Literature and society.

English drama (Comedy)--History and criticism.

English drama (Comedy).

Literary form--History--16th century.

Literary form.

Manners and customs in literature.

Festivals in literature.

England--Social life and customs--16th century.

England.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (322 p.)

Edition:

With a New foreword by Stephen Greenblatt

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this classic work, acclaimed Shakespeare critic C. L. Barber argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare's comedies. Brilliantly interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary criticism, Barber traces the inward journey--psychological, bodily, spiritual--of the comedies: from confusion, raucous laughter, aching desire, and aggression, to harmony. Revealing the interplay between social custom and dramatic form, the book shows how the Elizabethan antithesis between everyday and holiday comes to life in the comedies' combination of seriousness and levity. "I have been led into an exploration of the way the social form of Elizabethan holidays contributed to the dramatic form of festive comedy. To relate this drama to holiday has proved to be the most effective way to describe its character. And this historical interplay between social and artistic form has an interest of its own: we can see here, with more clarity of outline and detail than is usually possible, how art develops underlying configurations in the social life of a culture."--C. L. Barber, in the Introduction This new edition includes a foreword by Stephen Greenblatt, who discusses Barber's influence on later scholars and the recent critical disagreements that Barber has inspired, showing that Shakespeare's Festive Comedy is as vital today as when it was originally published.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword / Greenblatt, Stephen

Preface

One. Introduction: The Saturnalian Patter

Two. Holiday Custom and Entertainment

Three. Misrule as Comedy; Comedy as Misrule

Four. Prototypes of Festive Comedy in a Pageant Entertainment: Summer's Last Will and Testament

Five. The Folly of Wit and Masquerade in Love's Labour's Lost

Six. May Games and Metamorphoses on a Midsummer Night

Seven. The Merchants and the Jew of Venice: Wealth's Communion and an Intruder

Eight. Rule and Misrule in Henry IV

Nine. The Alliance of Seriousness and Levity in As You Like It

Ten. Testing Courtesy and Humanity in Twelfth Night

Index

Notes:

Reissue, with a new foreword.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786613212603

9781283212601

1283212609

9781400839858

1400839858

OCLC:

753678591