Table Of ContentThe Shakespeare Handbook
Literature and Culture Handbooks
General Editors: Philip Tew and Steven Barfield
Literature and Culture Handbooks are an innovative series of guides to major
periods, topics and authors in British and American literature and culture.
Designed to provide a comprehensive, one-stop resource for literature
students, each handbook provides the essential information and guidance
needed from the beginning of a course through to developing more advanced
knowledge and skills.
The Eighteenth-Century Literature Handbook
Edited by Gary Day and Bridget Keegan
Vie Medieval British Literature Handbook
Edited by Daniel T. Kline
The Modernism Handbook
Edited by Philip Tew and Alex Murray
The Post-war British Literature Handbook
Edited by Katherine Cockin and Jago Morrison
The Renaissance Literature Handbook
Edited by Susan Bruce and Rebecca Steinberger
Vie Seventeenth-Century Literature Handbook
Edited by Robert C. Evans and Eric J. Sterling
The Victorian Literature Handbook
Edited by Alexandra Warwick and Martin Willis
The Shakespeare
Handbook
Edited by
Andrew Hiscock
and
Stephen Longstaffe
A
continuum
Continuum
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704
11 York Road New York
London SEI 7NX NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
© Andrew Hiscock, Stephen I.ongstaffe and contributors 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-0-8264-9521-1 (hardback)
978-0-8264-9578-5 (paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
Detailed Table of Contents vii
Acknowledgements xiii
General Editors' Introduction xv
Foreword - How to use this Book xvii
Part I: Shakespeare's Time 1
1 Introduction: From Shakespeare to Shakespeare Studies 3
Andrew Hiscock and Stephen Longstaffe
Shakespearean Timeline Peter Sillitoe
2 Historical Contexts for the Age of Shakespeare 26
William E. Engel
3 Shakespeare's Literary and Cultural Contexts 46
Stephen Longstaffe
Part II: How to Read Shakespeare 69
4 Case Studies in Reading I: Reading the Texts 71
Kirk Melnikoff
5 Case Studies in Reading 11: From Texts to Theory 93
Mark Robson
6 Shakespeare in Performance and Film 112
Stuart Hatnplon-Reeves
7 Key Critical Concepts and Topics 129
Adrian Streete
Part III: Shakespeare Studies Now 145
8 Recent Critical Responses and Approaches 147
Lisa Hopkins
v
Contents
9 New Contexts for Shakespeare 173
Gabriel Egan
10 Recent Issues in Shakespeare Studies: From Margins to Centre 190
Willy Maley
11 Making Meanings: Shakespeare's Poetry for the Theatre 206
Ros King
Glossary of Critical and Theoretical Terminology 215
Peter Sillitoe
Appendix: Shakespeare: Teaching, Curriculum and Learning 223
David Webb
(Available at www.continuumbooks.com/resources/
9780826495785)
Notes on the Contributors 224
Notes 227
Annotated Bibliography 228
Robert C. Evans
Works Cited 240
Index 256
vi
Detailed Table of Contents
Acknowledgements xiii
General Editors' Introduction xv
Foreword - How to use this Book xvii
Part I: Shakespeare's Time 1
1 Introduction: From Shakespeare to Shakespeare Studies 3
Andrew Hiscock and Stephen Longstaffe
Shakespeare among his Contemporaries 3
The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 5
The Nineteenth Century 7
The Twentieth Century: the Growth in Professional Criticism 9
Shakespearean Timeline Peter Sillitoe 21
2 Historical Contexts for the Age of Shakespeare 26
William E. Engel
Telling History, Then and Now 26
Religious Change 27
Commercial and Military Exchanges 34
Relations with the Continent: Martial and Marital 38
Urban Growth in the Capital 41
Court Culture and Centres of Power 42
Conclusion 43
3 Shakespeare's Literary and Cultural Contexts 46
Stephen Longstaffe
Acting 47
Authorship 48
Blackfriars Playhouse 48
vii
Detailed Table of Contents
Blazon 49
Boy Players 50
Censorship 50
Classical Heritage 52
Comedy 52
Costumes 53
Court 54
Education 55
Globe Theatre 56
History Play 56
King James Bible 57
London 57
Masque 58
Earl of Oxford 59
Pastoral 59
Patronage 60
Plague 60
Playing Company 61
Props 62
Publishing 62
Repertoire 63
Rhetoric 64
Romance 64
Scenery 65
Stage Directions 65
Stages 66
Sumptuary Laws 66
Tragedy 66
Part II: How to Read Shakespeare 69
4 Case Studies in Reading I: Reading the Texts 71
Kirk Melnikoff
Shakespeare's English 72
Shakespeare's Verse 73
Analysing the Sonnet 75
Language and Dramatic Communication 77
Shakespeare's Prose 79
The Movement between Poetry and Prose 82
Shakespeare's Imagery 84
Plays as Dramatic Poems 86
Shakespeare's Word-play 87
viii
Detailed Table of Contents
Language and the Lower Orders 89
Shakespeare's Language Experts 90
5 Case Studies in Reading II: From Texts to Theory 93
Mark Robson
Shakespeare in Theory 93
Reading Reading 95
New Historicism 96
'Race' and Ethnicity 100
Gender and Sexuality 103
Psychoanalysis and Deconstruction 105
Shakespeare After Theory 110
6 Shakespeare in Performance and Film 112
Stuart Hampton-Reeves
A Player's Hide 112
Rediscovering Shakespeare in Performance 114
Shakespeare's Theatre 114
Viewing Shakespeare 116
Macbeth Workshop 117
Macbeth in Performance 122
Conclusion 127
7 Key Critical Concepts and Topics 129
Adrian Streete
Setting the Scene 129
Key Concept One: Authority 130
Key Concept Two: Carnivalesque 134
Key Concept Three: Colonialism and Race 136
Key Concept Four: Desire 137
Key Concept Five: Religion 140
Key Concept Six: Textuality 141
Conclusion 143
Part III: Shakespeare Studies Now 145
8 Recent Critical Responses and Approaches 147
Lisa Hopkins
Psychoanalysis 147
Feminist Criticism 150
New Historicism 153
