Shakespeare's humanism / Robin Headlam Wells.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wells, Robin Headlam, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Philosophy.

Humanism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 278 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Renaissance humanists believed that if you want to build a just society you must begin with the facts of human nature. This book argues that the idea of a universal human nature was as important to Shakespeare as it was to every other Renaissance writer. In doing so it questions the central principle of post-modern Shakespeare criticism. Postmodernists insist that the notion of defining a human essence was alien to Shakespeare and his contemporaries; as radical anti-essentialists, the Elizabethans were, in effect, postmodernists before their time. In challenging this claim Shakespeare's Humanism shows that for Shakespeare, as for every other humanist writer in this period, the key to all wise action was 'the knowledge of our selves and our human condition'.

Contents:

Shakespeare and English humanism

Gender

Value pluralism

Social justice

Men, women and civilisation

Love and death

History

Genius

Anti-humanism.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-270) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-14639-9

1-280-30950-4

0-511-13429-0

0-511-13700-1

0-511-20122-2

0-511-31147-8

0-511-48362-7

0-511-13481-9

OCLC:

252488263