
Receiving the Stranger in Shakespeare
Hospitality and Hostility in the Plays
Joan Fitzpatrick(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 8. June 2025
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-367-62334-0 (ISBN)
Description
Hospitality to strangers has become an increasingly prevalent topic in recent years, from political upheavals resulting in the displacement of millions of people, to the emergence of our collective obligations towards strangers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet the vexed question of when to welcome or reject strangers is nothing new. In the context of an increasingly multicultural early modern London, where disease, including plague, was often rampant, Shakespeare repeatedly explores the subtle ethical complexities that attend seemingly straightforward acts of hospitality or their refusal. Receiving the Stranger in Shakespeare provides critical analysis of the most important moments of hospitality or its denial in Shakespeare's plays, situating them historically in order to fully explore Shakespeare's engagement with early modern views. The book explores the plays definitions of the self, self-interest, and otherness and their relevance to make sense of the world, and an exploration of the social, economic, and political particularities that make such distinctions as troublesome as they are necessary. This volume will unravel the various attempts, successful and unsuccessful, to balance these obligations and risks.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
504 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-367-62334-0 (9780367623340)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

E-Book
06/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Person
Joan Fitzpatrick is Senior Lecturer in English at Loughborough University, specializing in the historical and critical study of food in literature. She is author of A History of Food in Literature from the Fourteenth Century to the Present, co-authored with Charlotte Boyce (Routledge, 2017); Three Sixteenth Century Dietaries: A Critical Edition, Revels Companion Library; Shakespeare and the Language of Food: A Dictionary, Continuum/Arden Shakespeare Dictionaries; and Food in Shakespeare: Early Modern Dietaries and the Plays (Routledge, formerly Ashgate, 2007).
Content
Introduction
Chapter One. The Moor: Titus Andronicus, Othello, The Merchant of Venice
Chapter Two. A Pastoral Welcome: As You Like It and The Winter's Tale
Chapter Three. Jews and Friars: The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet
Chapter Four. Hosting Nobility: Macbeth and King Lear
Chapter Five. Roman Receptions: Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Cymbeline
Chapter Six. Welcoming Travellers: Pericles and The Tempest
Conclusion
Chapter One. The Moor: Titus Andronicus, Othello, The Merchant of Venice
Chapter Two. A Pastoral Welcome: As You Like It and The Winter's Tale
Chapter Three. Jews and Friars: The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet
Chapter Four. Hosting Nobility: Macbeth and King Lear
Chapter Five. Roman Receptions: Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Cymbeline
Chapter Six. Welcoming Travellers: Pericles and The Tempest
Conclusion