Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History, from the Restoration to the Present - Hardcover

Taylor, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1555840787 ISBN 13: 9781555840785

Publisher: Grove Pr, 1989

Synopsis

Discusses changing interpretations of Shakespeare and his plays, and explains how he became regarded as the English language's finest writer

About this title

Reviews

A rising young textual critic and co-editor of the new Oxford Shakespeare --a Catholic University of America professor notorious for attributing a hitherto little-known manuscript poem to Shakespeare--here defines what "Shakespeare" meant in and to six periods in the past 350 years: the 17th-century English Restoration, the early 18th century, the Romantic period, the Victorian and post-Edwardian eras and the very recent past. Taylor discourses on how Shakespeare's works were edited, criticized, quoted, translated, performed and filmed, how his name and words were spelled, how he was graphically depicted. Although it focuses on the poet-dramatist's evolving reputation--which Taylor calls "Shakesperotics"--this lively survey also examines developments in publishing, journalism, theater, censorship, morality, education, sex, economics, politics, ideology, social and material culture. Among the enormous cast of characters engagingly presented are not only Garrick, Kean and Gordon Craig, but also Burke, Keats and Coleridge, Dowden, Bradley and Chambers, Shaw, Joyce and Cleanth Brooks.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Like Louis Marder in His Exits and His Entrances (1963), Taylor examines Shakespeare's rise from a half-forgotten playwright to the brightest jewel in the crown of English literature. What distinguishes Taylor's effort, however, is his equal emphasis on political, social, and historical events as well as events in the literary and theatrical world. Taylor ably illustrates how such disparate elements encouraged the series of happy accidents that allowed Shakespeare's reputation to flourish. Taylor's irreverent, tongue-in-cheek style may prevent his book from being taken as serious scholarship; this would be a mistake, as it is a delightful, illuminating read. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
- James Stephenson, The Soc . of the Cincinnati Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Pr
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1555840787
• ISBN 13: 9781555840785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 461