Shakespeare for Freedom presents a powerful, plausible and political argument for Shakespeare's meaning and value. It ranges across the breadth of the Shakespeare phenomenon, offering a new interpretation not just of the characters and plays but also of the part they have played in theatre, criticism, civic culture and politics. Its story includes a glimpse of 'Freetown' in Romeo and Juliet, which comes to life in the 1769 Stratford Jubilee; the Shakespearean careers of the Leicester Chartist, Cooper, and the Hungarian hero, Kossuth; Hegel's recognition of Shakespearean freedom as the modern breakthrough; its fatal effects in America; the disgust it inspired in Tolstoy; its rehabilitation by Ted Hughes; and its obscure centrality in the 2012 Olympics. Ultimately, it issues a positive Shakespearean prognosis for freedom as a vital (in both senses), unending struggle. Shakespeare for Freedom shows why Shakespeare has mattered for four hundred years, and why he still matters today.
With the elegance and verve for which he is well known, Greenblatt, author of the bestselling "Will in the World," shows that Shakespeare was strikingly averse to such absolutes as scripture, monarch, and God, and constantly probed the ...
Rather than see love as a natural form of affection, Love As Human Freedom sees love as a practice that changes over time through which new social realities are brought into being.
In every case, Greenblatt brings a flash of illumination to the work, enabling us to experience these great plays again as if for the first time, and with greater understanding and appreciation of their extraordinary depth and humanity ...
The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 3.2 Romeo and Juliet, Q2, 1597. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 3.3 Romeo and Juliet, Q1, 1597. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 3.4 Romeo and Juliet, Q1, ...
Find out why Publishers Weekly calls A Heart for Freedom "a tale of human dignity and the imperative to live a life of meaning. . . . This book will be treasured.
Poetic Freedom and Poetic Truth: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Milton
This book will be essential reading for everybody who cares about the future of the arts in a democratic society.
This book's underlying claim is that English Renaissance tragedy addresses live issues in the experience of readers and spectators today: it is not a genre to be studied only for aesthetic or “heritage” reasons.
... 170 Klawans , Stuart , 198 Knortz , Karl , xii Knowles , James Sheridan , The Wife , 24 , 31 Know - Nothings , 92-93 Kovaleski , Serge , xxvi Kushner , Jared , 79 Kushner , Tony , 181 Lodge , Henry Cabot , 127-31 , 133 , 134 279 INDEX.
"Brilliant, beautifully organized, exceedingly readable." —Philip Roth World-renowned Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores the playwright’s insight into bad (and often mad) rulers.