Of human kindness : what Shakespeare teaches us about empathy / Paula Marantz Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Paula Marantz, 1953- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters.

Shakespeare, William.

Empathy in literature.

Kindness in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 159 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2021]

Summary:

An award-winning scholar and teacher explores how Shakespeare's greatest characters were built on a learned sense of empathy While exploring Shakespeare's plays with her students, Paula Marantz Cohen discovered that teaching and discussing his plays unlocked a surprising sense of compassion in the classroom. In this short and illuminating book, she shows how Shakespeare's genius lay with his ability to arouse empathy, even when his characters exist in alien contexts and behave in reprehensible ways. Cohen takes her readers through a selection of Shakespeare's most famous plays, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice, to demonstrate the ways in which Shakespeare thought deeply and clearly about how we treat ";the other."; Cohen argues that only through close reading of Shakespeare can we fully appreciate his empathetic response to race, class, gender, and age. Wise, eloquent, and thoughtful, this book is a forceful argument for literature's power to champion what is best in us.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction

One. Shakespeare's Empathetic Imagination

Two. Richard III: Unrealized Potential

Three. Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V: Beginning

Four. Th e Merchant of Venice: Blueprint

Five. As You Like It: Gender

Six. Hamlet: Self

Seven. Othello: Race and Class

Eight. King Lear: Age

Nine. Measure for Measure: A World Without Empathy

Ten. Antony and Cleopatra: Wider Vistas

Eleven. Th e Winter's Tale: Across Generations

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-25832-1

OCLC:

1231607932