
Shakespeare's Tragic Language
Paul Hammond(Author)
Brill (Publisher)
Published on 27. March 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-90-04-72365-8 (ISBN)
Description
In Shakespearean tragedy, language is used to bring about the downfall of characters, but there is also a tragedy which affects language itself through the decomposition of the fundamental concepts and mythologies which give identity to both societies and individuals. This book shows how in Shakespeare's English history plays, Roman plays, tragicomedies, and romances, characters use language to manipulate and destroy others, but also imprison themselves in false reasoning. The misuse of language creates tragedies for individuals but also for society at large, as its conceptual building blocks lose their capacity to function. For Shakespeare, tragedy happens both to individuals and to cultures, and happens both in language and to language.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
245 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-72365-8 (9789004723658)
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
Person
Paul Hammond (Litt.D., Cambridge, 1996) is Professor of Seventeenth-Century English Literature at the University of Leeds and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include The Strangeness of Tragedy (2009) and Tragic Agency in Classical Drama from Aeschylus to Racine (2022).
Content
Preface
Acknowledgements
Note on Texts and Abbreviations
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
Prologue: Tragic Language
1 Tragic Language in the Early History Plays
2 Tragic Language in Shakespeare's Rome
3 Language and Dissolution
4 The Tragedy of Coercive Language
5 From Tragedy to Romance
Epilogue
Select Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Note on Texts and Abbreviations
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
Prologue: Tragic Language
1 Tragic Language in the Early History Plays
2 Tragic Language in Shakespeare's Rome
3 Language and Dissolution
4 The Tragedy of Coercive Language
5 From Tragedy to Romance
Epilogue
Select Bibliography
Index