Interweaving myths in Shakespeare and his contemporaries / edited by Janice Valls-Russell, Agnès Lafont and Charlotte Coffin.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Valls-Russell, Janice, editor.

Lafont, Agnès, editor.

Coffin, Charlotte, editor.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600--History and criticism.

English drama.

Mythology in literature.

English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xiii, 283 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2017.

Summary:

This volume proposes new insights into the uses of classical mythology by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, focusing on interweaving processes in early modern appropriations of myth. Its 11 essays show how early modern writing intertwines diverse myths and plays with variant versions of individual myths that derive from multiple classical sources, as well as medieval, Tudor and early modern retellings and translations. Works discussed include poems and plays by William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and others. Essays concentrate on specific plays including 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'Dido Queen of Carthage', tracing interactions between myths, chronicles, the Bible and contemporary genres. Mythological figures are considered to demonstrate how the weaving together of sources deconstructs gendered representations. New meanings emerge from these readings, which open up methodological perspectives on multi-textuality, artistic appropriation and cultural hybridity.

Contents:

Introduction: 'Ariachne's broken woof' / Janice Valls-Russell, Agnès Lafont and Charlotte Coffin

Shakespeare's mythological feuilletage : a methodological induction / Yves Peyré

The non-Ovidian Elizabethan epyllion : Thomas Watson, Christopher Marlowe, Richard Barnfield / Tonia Demetriou

'This realm is an empire' : tales of origins in medieval and early modern France and England / Dominique Goy-Blanquet

Trojan shadows in Shakespeare's King John / Janice Valls-Russell

Venetian Jasons, parti-colored lambs and a tainted wether : ovine tropes and the Golden Fleece in The merchant of Venice / Atsuhiko Hirota

Fifty ways to kill your brother : Medea and the poetics of fratricide in early modern English literature / Katherine Heavey

'She, whom Jove transported into Crete' : Europa, between consent and rape / Gaëlle Ginestet

Subtle weavers, mythological interweavings and feminine political agency : Penelope and Arachne in early modern drama / Nathalie Rivère de Carles

Multi-layered conversations in Marlowe's Dido, queen of Carthage / Agnès Lafont

Burlesque or neoplatonic? Popular or elite? The shifting value of classical mythology in Love's mistress / Charlotte Coffin

Pygmalion, once and future myth : instead of a conclusion / Ruth Morse.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-275) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781526117687

1526117681

OCLC:

986236993