The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy

by Edited by Claire McEachern

• ISBN13: 9780521790093
• ISBN10: 0521790093
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy acquaints the student reader with the forms, contexts, critical and theatrical lives of the ten plays considered to be Shakespeare's tragedies. Shakespearean tragedy is a highly complex and demanding theatre genre, but the thirteen essays, written by leading scholars in Britain and North America, are clear, concise and informative. They address the ways in which Shakespearean tragedy originated, developed and diversified, as well as how it has fared on stage, as text and in criticism. Topics covered include the literary precursors of Shakespearean tragedies (medieval, classical, and contemporary), cultural backgrounds (political, religious, social, and psychological), and the subgenres of Shakespeare's tragedy (love tragedy, revenge tragedy, and classical tragedy), as well as the critical and theatrical receptions of the plays. The book examines the four major tragedies and, in addition, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
List of contributors	viii
Preface	ix
Chronology	xi
List of abbreviations	xiii
What is a Shakespearean tragedy?	1	(22)
Tom McAlindon
The language of tragedy	23	(27)
Russ McDonald
Tragedy in Shakespeare's career	50	(19)
David Bevington
Shakespearean tragedy printed and performed	69	(17)
Michael Warren
Religion and Shakespearean tragedy	86	(17)
Huston Diehl
Tragedy and political authority	103	(20)
Michael Hattaway
Gender and family	123	(19)
Catherine Belsey
The tragic subject and its passions	142	(18)
Gail Kern Paster
Tragedies of revenge and ambition	160	(22)
Robert N. Watson
Shakespeare's tragedies of love	182	(22)
Catherine Bates
Shakespeare's classical tragedies	204	(20)
Coppelia Kahn
The critical reception of Shakespeare's tragedies	224	(17)
R.A. Foakes
Antony and Cleopatra in the theatre	241	(23)
Barbara Hodgdon
Select bibliography	264	(8)
Index	272