Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic : Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War / Patrick Gray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gray, Patrick, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 pages)

Other Title:

Knowledge Unlatched.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2018.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic introduces Shakespeare as a historian of ancient Rome alongside figures such as Sallust, Cicero, St Augustine, Machiavelli, Gibbon, Hegel and Nietzsche. In Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare shows Rome's transition from Republic to Empire. Why did Rome degenerate into an autocracy? Alternating between ruthless competition, Stoicism, Epicureanism and self-indulgent fantasies, Rome as Shakespeare sees it is inevitably bound for civil war. Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic considers Shakespeare's place in the history of concepts of selfhood and reflects on his sympathy for Christianity, in light of his reception of medieval Biblical drama, as well as his allusions to the New Testament. Shakespeare's critique of Romanitas anticipates concerns about secularisation, individualism and liberalism shared by philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel and Patrick Deneen.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

KU Select 2019: HSS Backlist Books

BiblioBoard internal publisher id: 103994

ISBN:

9781474427470

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access