Anecdotal Shakespeare

A New Performance History

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British, Nonfiction, Entertainment, Drama, Shakespeare
Cover of the book Anecdotal Shakespeare by Paul Menzer, Bloomsbury Publishing
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Paul Menzer ISBN: 9781472576170
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Publication: October 22, 2015
Imprint: The Arden Shakespeare Language: English
Author: Paul Menzer
ISBN: 9781472576170
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication: October 22, 2015
Imprint: The Arden Shakespeare
Language: English

Shakespeare's four-hundred-year performance history is full of anecdotes – ribald, trivial, frequently funny, sometimes disturbing, and always but loosely allegiant to fact. Such anecdotes are nevertheless a vital index to the ways that Shakespeare's plays have generated meaning across varied times and in varied places. Furthermore, particular plays have produced particular anecdotes – stories of a real skull in Hamlet, superstitions about the name Macbeth, toga troubles in Julius Caesar – and therefore express something embedded in the plays they attend. Anecdotes constitute then not just a vital component of a play's performance history but a form of vernacular criticism by the personnel most intimately involved in their production: actors. These anecdotes are therefore every bit as responsive to and expressive of a play's meanings across time as the equally rich history of Shakespearean criticism or indeed the very performances these anecdotes treat. Anecdotal Shakespeare provides a history of post-Renaissance Shakespeare and performance, one not based in fact but no less full of truth.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Shakespeare's four-hundred-year performance history is full of anecdotes – ribald, trivial, frequently funny, sometimes disturbing, and always but loosely allegiant to fact. Such anecdotes are nevertheless a vital index to the ways that Shakespeare's plays have generated meaning across varied times and in varied places. Furthermore, particular plays have produced particular anecdotes – stories of a real skull in Hamlet, superstitions about the name Macbeth, toga troubles in Julius Caesar – and therefore express something embedded in the plays they attend. Anecdotes constitute then not just a vital component of a play's performance history but a form of vernacular criticism by the personnel most intimately involved in their production: actors. These anecdotes are therefore every bit as responsive to and expressive of a play's meanings across time as the equally rich history of Shakespearean criticism or indeed the very performances these anecdotes treat. Anecdotal Shakespeare provides a history of post-Renaissance Shakespeare and performance, one not based in fact but no less full of truth.

More books from Bloomsbury Publishing

Cover of the book Who Do We Think We Are? by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book British Battle Tanks by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Goodbye Sarajevo by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Photography in India by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Ruler of the Realm by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book The Talented Mr Ripley by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Forgetfulness by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Uniformity of Customs Administration in the European Union by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Fiction and Art by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Ismaili Literature by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Fortresses of the Peninsular War 1808–14 by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Deadly Dangerous Kings and Queens by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book Greig Plays:1 by Paul Menzer
Cover of the book The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle by Paul Menzer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy