The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's Comedies
Published on 17. April 2008
Book
Hardback
164 pages
978-0-521-85668-3 (ISBN)
Description
Why did theatre audiences laugh in Shakespeare's day? Why do they still laugh now? What did Shakespeare do with the conventions of comedy that he inherited, so that his plays continue to amuse and move audiences? What do his comedies have to say about love, sex, gender, power, family, community, and class? What place have pain, cruelty, and even death in a comedy? Why all those puns? In a survey that travels from Shakespeare's earliest experiments in farce and courtly love-stories to the great romantic comedies of his middle years and the mould-breaking experiments of his last decade's work, this book addresses these vital questions. Organised thematically, and covering all Shakespeare's comedies from the beginning to the end of his career, it provides readers with a map of the playwright's comic styles, showing how he built on comedic conventions as he further enriched the possibilities of the genre.
Reviews / Votes
'... new historicism tends to read like a rebarbative coded message to the inmates of other North American graduate schools, whereas Gay's book strikes me as a balanced voice of experience and wisdom. ... Gay's is a book you might read without being compelled to, for the pleasure of learning more about plays that continue to work on the stage and on the page. ... obscure, reader-unfriendly work. Too many of us, in accepting a contract to write for a student or general audience, do not try hard enough to be clear and comprehensive, or even slip into passages of professional obscurity to show that we know we are slumming it. Such vanity is something Gay steers well clear of. ... She does theory with a light and relevant touch ... This is what literary criticism needs ...' Robert Phiddian, Literary Studies 'The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's Comedies would be an excellent addition to a Shakespeare course.' Studies in Medieval and Renaissance TeachingMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
398 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-85668-3 (9780521856683)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2008
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€18.99
Available for download
Book
04/2008
Cambridge University Press
€31.30
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
04/2008
Cambridge University Press
€16.99
Available for download
Person
Penny Gay is Professor of English and Drama at the University of Sydney.
Content
1. Introduction: Comedy as idea and practice; 2. Farce: The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor; 3. Courtly lovers and the real world: Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice; 4. Comedy and language: Love's Labour's Lost; 5. Romantic comedy: Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night; 6. Problematic plots and endings: clowning post-Hamlet: Measure for Measure, All's Well that Ends Well, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest; 7. The afterlives of Shakespeare's comedies; Conclusion.