The great William : writers reading Shakespeare / Theodore Leinwand.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leinwand, Theodore, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Influence.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Appreciation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago, [Illinois] ; London, [England] : The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Great William is the first book to explore how seven renowned writers—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Virginia Woolf, Charles Olson, John Berryman, Allen Ginsberg, and Ted Hughes—wrestled with Shakespeare in the very moments when they were reading his work. What emerges is a constellation of remarkable intellectual and emotional encounters. Theodore Leinwand builds impressively detailed accounts of these writers’ experiences through their marginalia, lectures, letters, journals, and reading notes. We learn why Woolf associated reading Shakespeare with her brother Thoby, and what Ginsberg meant when referring to the mouth feel of Shakespeare’s verse. From Hughes’s attempts to find a “skeleton key” to all of Shakespeare’s plays to Berryman’s tormented efforts to edit King Lear, Leinwand reveals the palpable energy and conviction with which these seven writers engaged with Shakespeare, their moments of utter self-confidence and profound vexation. In uncovering these intense public and private reactions, The Great William connects major writers’ hitherto unremarked scenes of reading Shakespeare with our own.

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter I. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ""Impelling Thoughts"" About Shakespeare; Chapter II. John Keats on Sitting Down to Read Shakespeare Once Again; Chapter III. Virginia Woolf Reads ""The Great William""; Chapter IV. Charles Olson's ""Objectist Shakespeare""; Chapter V. John Berryman's Shakespeare/Shakespeare's John Berryman; Chapter VI. Allen Ginsberg on Shakespeare's Funny Mouthings; Chapter VII. Ted Hughes Reads the Complete Shakespeare; Conclusion; Notes; Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed April 27, 2016).

ISBN:

9780226367699

022636769X

OCLC:

946887759