Circumstantial Shakespeare

by Hutson, Lorna

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Title Statements

Full title :Circumstantial Shakespeare / Lorna Hutson.

Summary

Shakespeare's characters are thought to be his greatest achievement-imaginatively autonomous, possessed of depth and individuality, while his plots are said to be second-hand and careless of details of time and place. This view has survived the assaults of various literary theories and has even, surprisingly, been revitalized by the recent emphasis on the collaborative nature of early modern theatre. But belief in the autonomous imaginative life of Shakespeare's characters depends on another unexamined myth: the myth that Shakespeare rejected neoclassicism, playing freely with theatrical time and place. Circumstantial Shakespeare explodes these venerable critical commonplaces. Drawing on sixteenth-century rhetorical pedagogy, it reveals the importance of topics of circumstance (of Time, Place and Motive, etc.) in the conjuring of compelling narratives and vivid mental images. 'Circumstances'-which we now think of as incalculable contingencies-were originally topics of forensic inquiry into human intention or passion. In drawing on the Roman forensic tradition of circumstantial proof, Shakespeare did not ignore time and place--

Edition Statements

Publication Date:©2015
Edition:First edition

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Oxford University Press
Place of Publication:Oxford, United Kingdom
Language:eng
Publication Date:©2015

The Physical Object

Description:x, 190 pages ; : 21 cm.

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9780199657100, 0199657106
oclc:ocn903804552
LC Classification:PR2995
Dewey Decimal:822.3/3

Introduction -- 'Quando?' (When?) in Romeo and Juliet -- 'Imaginary Work': Opportunity in Lucrece and in King Lear -- Where and How? Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Maid's Tragedy -- 'The Innocent Sleepe': Motive in Macbeth.

Subjects

Characters and characteristics Criticism, interpretation, etc Drama Motiv Plots (Drama, novel, etc.) Raum Shakespeare, William Stories, plots, etc Zeit