Shakespeare and the Political Way

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-0-19-884861-5
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 276 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 241 mm x 161 mm, Gewicht: 566 g

Studies of Shakespeare and politics often ask the question whether his dramas are on the side of aristocratic or monarchical sovereign authority, or are on the side of those who resist; whether he endorses a standard view of male and patriarchal authority, or whether his cross-dressing heroines put him among feminist thinkers. Scholars also show that Shakespeare's representations of rule, revolt, and arguments about laws and constitutions draw on and allude to stories and real events that were contemporaneous for him, as well as historical ones.

Building on scholarship about Shakespeare and politics, this book argues that Shakespeare's representations and stagings of political power, sovereignty, resistance, and controversy are more complex. The merits of political life, as opposed to life governed by monetary exchange, religious truth, supernatural power, military heroism, or interpersonal love, are rehearsed in the plots. And the clashing and contradictory meanings of politics -- its association with free truthful speech but also with dishonest hypocrisy, with open action and argument as much as occult behind the scenes manoevring -- are dramatized by him, to show that although violence, lies, and authoritarianism do often win out in the world there is another kind of politics, and a political way that we would do well to follow when we can. The book offers original readings of the characters and plots of Shakespeare's dramas in order to illustrate the subtlety of his pictures of political power, how it works, and what is wrong and right with it.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Frazer, Elizabeth

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Dramen und Dramatiker

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction: Political Power and the Political Way

- 1: Political Power and Othello

- 2: Political Power and Measure for Measure

- 3: Political and Military Power: Coriolanus

- 4: Violence and Political Authority: Romeo and Juliet

- 5: Sovereignty, Justice, and Political Power: King Lear

- 6: Friendship and Justice: Merchant of Venice and Timon of Athens

- 7: Politics and Magic: Macbeth and Tempest

- 8: Politics and Theatre: Hamlet

- Conclusion: The Political Way

Über Autor(innen)

Elizabeth Frazer teaches political thought and political theory at the University of Oxford. Her publications include Can Violence Ever Be Justified? (with Kimberly Hutchings, Polity Press, 2019), and she is the author of articles about ideals of politics in political thought and education.