Scepticism in Shakespeare and Other Essays
Author: Dinesh Chandra Biswas
Publisher:
Published: 1987
Total Pages: 258
ISBN-13:
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Tragedy and Scepticism in Shakespeare's England
Author: W. Hamlin
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2005-06-01
Total Pages: 317
ISBN-13: 0230502768
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHamlin's study provides the first full-scale account of the reception and literary appropriation of ancient scepticism in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (c. 1570-1630). Offering abundant archival evidence as well as fresh treatments of Florio's Montaigne and Bacon's career-long struggle with the challenges of epistemological doubt, Hamlin's book explores the deep connections between scepticism and tragedy in plays ranging from Doctor Faustus and Troilus and Cressida to The Tragedy of Mariam , The Duchess of Malfi , and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore .
Shakespeare's Philosophy
Author: Colin McGinn
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2006-11-28
Total Pages: 244
ISBN-13: 0060856157
DOWNLOAD EBOOKShakespeare's plays are usually studied by literary scholars and historians and the books about him from those perspectives are legion. It is most unusual for a trained philosopher to give us his insight, as Colin McGinn does here, into six of Shakespeare's greatest plays—A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest. In his brilliant commentary, McGinn explores Shakespeare's philosophy of life and illustrates how he was influenced, for example, by the essays of Montaigne that were translated into English while Shakespeare was writing. In addition to chapters on the great plays, there are also essays on Shakespeare and gender and his plays from the aspects of psychology, ethics, and tragedy. As McGinn says about Shakespeare, "There is not a sentimental bone in his body. He has the curiosity of a scientist, the judgement of a philosopher, and the soul of a poet." McGinn relates the ideas in the plays to the later philosophers such as David Hume and the modern commentaries of critics such as Harold Bloom. The book is an exhilarating reading experience, especially at a time when a new audience has opened up for the greatest writer in English.
Shakespeare's Tragic Skepticism
Author: Millicent Bell
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2008-10-01
Total Pages: 303
ISBN-13: 0300127200
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReaders of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies have long noted the absence of readily explainable motivations for some of Shakespeare’s greatest characters: why does Hamlet delay his revenge for so long? Why does King Lear choose to renounce his power? Why is Othello so vulnerable to Iago’s malice? But while many critics have chosen to overlook these omissions or explain them away, Millicent Bell demonstrates that they are essential elements of Shakespeare’s philosophy of doubt. Examining the major tragedies, Millicent Bell reveals the persistent strain of philosophical skepticism. Like his contemporary, Montaigne, Shakespeare repeatedly calls attention to the essential unknowability of our world. In a period of social, political, and religious upheaval, uncertainty hovered over matters great and small—the succession of the crown, the death of loved ones from plague, the failure of a harvest. Tumultuous social conditions raised ultimate questions for Shakespeare, Bell argues, and ultimately provoked in him a skepticism which casts shadows of existential doubt over his greatest masterpieces.
A Will to Believe
Author: David Scott Kastan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 168
ISBN-13: 0199572895
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Will to Believe is a revised version of Kastan's 2008 Oxford Wells Shakespeare Lectures, providing a provocative account of the ways in which religion animates Shakespeare's plays.
Contested Will
Author: James Shapiro
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2011-04-19
Total Pages: 356
ISBN-13: 1416541632
DOWNLOAD EBOOKShakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote his plays.
Shakespeare Beyond Doubt
Author: Paul Edmondson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2013-04-18
Total Pages: 299
ISBN-13: 1107017599
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDid Shakespeare write Shakespeare? This authoritative collection of essays brings fresh perspectives to bear on an intriguing cultural phenomenon.
Shakespeare's Essays
Author: Peter G. Platt
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 2020-07-31
Total Pages: 208
ISBN-13: 1474463428
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThrough sustained close-readings of Montaigne's essays and Shakespeare's plays, Platt explores both authors' approaches to self, knowledge and form that stress fractures, interruptions and alternatives.
This Is Shakespeare
Author: Emma Smith
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2020-03-31
Total Pages: 263
ISBN-13: 1524748552
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn electrifying new study that investigates the challenges of the Bard’s inconsistencies and flaws, and focuses on revealing—not resolving—the ambiguities of the plays and their changing topicality A genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no other. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality, and literary mastery. A man who wrote like an angel, putting it all so much better than anyone else. Is this Shakespeare? Well, sort of. But it doesn’t tell us the whole truth. So much of what we say about Shakespeare is either not true, or just not relevant. In This Is Shakespeare, Emma Smith—an intellectually, theatrically, and ethically exciting writer—takes us into a world of politicking and copycatting, as we watch Shakespeare emulating the blockbusters of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd (the Spielberg and Tarantino of their day), flirting with and skirting around the cutthroat issues of succession politics, religious upheaval, and technological change. Smith writes in strikingly modern ways about individual agency, privacy, politics, celebrity, and sex. Instead of offering the answers, the Shakespeare she reveals poses awkward questions, always inviting the reader to ponder ambiguities.
Re-Humanising Shakespeare
Author: Andrew Mousley
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 2007-06-19
Total Pages: 224
ISBN-13: 0748629971
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCan Shakespeare help us with the question of how to live? Re-Humanising Shakespeare argues that although Shakespeare himself contributed to the uncertainties of modern living, his work can still serve as a source of existential wisdom and guidance.The book examines through a wide range of Shakespeare's plays the conditions under which human beings flourish or perish. Love, ethics, emotion, vulnerability and humility are amongst the topics discussed as part of the book's argument that Shakespeare is continually at pains to reclaim the human from its complete liquefaction. Given the range and originality of its approach, Re-Humanising Shakespeare will make provocative reading for all those interested in Shakespeare, ethics and questions of literary value.
