Coriolanus

by Edited by Lee Bliss , With contributions by Bridget Escolme

• ISBN13: 9780521728744
• ISBN10: 0521728746
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This generously annotated updated edition of Coriolanus provides a thorough reconsideration of Shakespeare's remarkable, and probably his last, tragedy. A substantial introduction situates the play within its contemporary social and political contexts - dearth, riots, the struggle over authority between James I and his first parliament, the travails of Essex and Ralegh - and pays particular attention to Shakespeare's shaping of his primary source in Plutarch's Lives. It presents a fresh account of how the protagonist's personal tragedy evolves within Shakespeare's most searching exploration of the political life of a community. The edition is alert throughout to the play's theatrical potential, while the stage history also attends to the politics of performance from the 1680s onwards, including European productions following the Second World War. A new introductory section by Bridget Escolme covers recent productions of Coriolanus, and criticism of the last ten years, with particular focus on gender and the play's politics.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. vi
Acknowledgements	p. vii
Abbreviations and conventions	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Date, theatre, chronology	p. 1
Sources	p. 10
Contemporary contexts	p. 17
Dearth, riots, rebellions	p. 17
Politics and the franchise	p. 27
Essex and Ralegh	p. 33
The Play	p. 40
Coriolanus on Shakespeare's stage	p. 63
Stage history	p. 67
Recent stage and critical interpretations BRIDGET ESCOLME	p. 98
The people and the city: the politics of Coriolanus	p. 99
Gender, sexuality, identity	p. 101
A theatre of shame	p. 102
The play in performance and performance criticism: anti-theatricality, stage presence and charisma	p. 103
Spatial and sartorial politics in the early and post-modern theatre	p. 109
Note on the text	p. 112
List of characters	p. 116
The Play	p. 118
Textual analysis	p. 289
Appendix: Lineation	p. 308
Reading list	p. 314
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