Believing in Shakespeare : studies in longing / Claire McEachern, University of California, Los Angeles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McEachern, Claire, 1963- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Religion.

Shakespeare, William.

Protestantism and literature--England--History.

Protestantism and literature.

Belief and doubt in literature.

Faith in literature.

Empathy in literature.

Drama--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Drama.

Religion in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 324 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

This ground breaking and accessible study explores the connections between the English Reformation's impact on the belief in eternal salvation and how it affected ways of believing in the plays of Shakespeare. Claire McEachern examines the new and better faith that Protestantism imagined for itself, a faith in which scepticism did not erode belief, but worked to substantiate it in ways that were both affectively positive and empirically positivist. Concluding with in-depth readings of Richard II, King Lear and The Tempest, the book represents a markedly fresh intervention in the topic of Shakespeare and religion. With great originality, McEachern argues that the English reception of the Calvinist imperative to 'know with' God allowed the very nature of literary involvement to change, transforming feeling for a character into feeling with one.

Contents:

Preface

Part I. Believing. An apology for belief; Part II. An anatomy of believing. In Shakespeare; Feeling your knowledge; Genre, or the tupping point

Part III. Person, plot, place. Person: Shakespeare's reformed characters; Plot, or the promised end; Place: location, location, location

Epilogue.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 24 Apr 2018).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-38073-5

1-108-38131-6

1-108-39707-7