1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910824021203321

Autore

Schulman Alex

Titolo

Rethinking Shakespeare's political philosophy : from Lear to Leviathan / / Alex Schulman [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Edinburgh : , : Edinburgh University Press, , 2014

ISBN

1-4744-0638-6

0-7486-8242-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 231 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Edinburgh Critical Studies in Shakespeare and Philosophy

Classificazione

HI 3385

Disciplina

822.3/3

Soggetti

LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 08 Aug 2016).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- I: Shakespearean antiquity -- The birth of tragicomedy (In the defeat of Hector by Ulysses) -- Pagan Christs: Politics in the Roman plays -- II: Shakespearean modernity -- "King Lear" and the state of nature -- Shakespeare's "Novus Ordo Seclorum": Freedom and authority in the English Histories -- Shakespeare and the Theological-Political Problem.

Sommario/riassunto

What were Shakespeare's politics? As this study demonstrates, contained in Shakespeare's plays is an astonishingly powerful reckoning with the tradition of Western political thought, one whose depth and scope places Shakespeare alongside Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes and others. This book is the first attempt by a political theorist to read Shakespeare within the trajectory of political thought as one of the authors of modernity. From Shakespeare's interpretation of ancient and medieval politics to his wrestling with issues of legitimacy, religious toleration, family conflict, and economic change, Alex Schulman shows how Shakespeare produces a fascinating map of modern politics at its crisis-filled birth. As a result, there are brand new readings of Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, Richard II and Henry IV, parts I and II , The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure.   Key Features   * Offers original interpretations of many of Shakespeare's plays from the vantage point of political theory   *Challenges the reigning viewpoint among political theorists that Shakespeare affirms ancient concepts of



political virtue   *Extends discussion of Shakespeare's political beyond his Elizabethan/Jacobean context   *Demonstrates the relevance of narrative and its various modes (comedy, tragedy, history, etc.) to our understanding of the human as a political animal