Shakespeare's individualism / Peter Holbrook.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Holbrook, Peter, 1959- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Shakespeare, William.

Individualism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 246 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Providing a provocative and original perspective on Shakespeare, Peter Holbrook argues that Shakespeare is an author friendly to such essentially modern and unruly notions as individuality, freedom, self-realization and authenticity. These expressive values vivify Shakespeare's own writing; they also form a continuous, and a central, part of the Shakespearean tradition. Engaging with the theme of the individual will in specific plays and poems, and examining a range of libertarian-minded scholarly and literary responses to Shakespeare over time, Shakespeare's Individualism advances the proposition that one of the key reasons for reading Shakespeare today is his commitment to individual liberty - even as we recognize that freedom is not just an indispensable ideal but also, potentially, a dangerous one. Engagingly written and jargon free, this book demonstrates that Shakespeare has important things to say about fundamental issues of human existence.

Contents:

Introduction. Part I: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Selfhood. 1. Hamlet and failure

2. 'A room ... at the back of the shop'

3. Egyptianism (our fascist future)

4. 'Become who you are!'

5. Hamlet and self-love

6. 'To thine own self be true'

7. Listening to ghosts

8. Shakespeare's self

Part II. Shakespeare and Evil. 9. 'Old lad, I am thine own: authenticity and Titus Andronicus

10. Evil and self-creation

11. Libertarian Shakespeare: Mill, Bradley

12. Shakespearean immoral individualism: Gide

13. Strange Shakespeare: Symons and others

14. Eliot's rejection of Shakespeare

15. Shakespearean immoralism: Antony and Cleopatra

16. Making oneself known: Montaigne and the Sonnets

Part III. Shakespeare and Self-Government. 17. Freedom and self-government: The Tempest

18. Calibanism

Conclusion: Shakespeare's 'beauteous freedom'.

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-511-73959-1

1-107-20789-4

1-282-52574-3

9786612525742

0-511-67795-2

0-511-68118-6

0-511-67669-7

0-511-68316-2

0-511-67598-4

0-511-67920-3

OCLC:

609860807