Coriolanus: A Critical Reader (Paperback)

Dr Liam E. Semler

ISBN 10: 1350213659 / ISBN 13: 9781350213654

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. Coriolanus is the last and most intriguing of Shakespeare's Roman tragedies. Critics, directors and actors have long been bewitched by this gripping character study of a warrior that Rome can neither tolerate nor do without. Caius Martius Coriolanus is a terrifying war machine in battle, a devoted son to a wise and ambitious mother at home, and an inflammatory scorner of the rights and rites of the common people. This Critical Reader opens up the extraordinary range of interpretation the play has elicited over the centuries and offers exciting new directions for scholarship.The volume commences with a Timeline of key events relating to Coriolanus in print and performance and an Introduction by the volume editor. Chapters survey the scholarly reaction to the play over four centuries, the history of Coriolanus on stage and the current research and thinking about the play. The second half of the volume comprises four 'New Directions' essays exploring: the rhetoric and performance of the self, the play's relevance to our contemporary world, an Hegelian approach to the tragedy, and the insights of computer-assisted stylometry. A final chapter critically surveys resources for teaching the play. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781350213654

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Coriolanus: A Critical Reader (Paperback)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350213659
• ISBN 13: 9781350213654
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Coriolanus is the last and most intriguing of Shakespeare's Roman tragedies. Critics, directors and actors have long been bewitched by this gripping character study of a warrior that Rome can neither tolerate nor do without. Caius Martius Coriolanus is a terrifying war machine in battle, a devoted son to a wise and ambitious mother at home, and an inflammatory scorner of the rights and rites of the common people. This Critical Reader opens up the extraordinary range of interpretation the play has elicited over the centuries and offers exciting new directions for scholarship. The volume commences with a Timeline of key events relating to Coriolanus in print and performance and an Introduction by the volume editor. Chapters survey the scholarly reaction to the play over four centuries, the history of Coriolanus on stage and the current research and thinking about the play. The second half of the volume comprises four 'New Directions' essays exploring: the rhetoric and performance of the self, the play's relevance to our contemporary world, an Hegelian approach to the tragedy, and the insights of computer-assisted stylometry. A final chapter critically surveys resources for teaching the play.

About the Authors

Liam E. Semler is Professor of Early Modern Literature at the University of Sydney, Australia, and has been a visiting fellow at Corpus Christi College Cambridge and the Universities of Massachusetts, Nottingham, Warwick and Essex. He leads the Better Strangers project which hosts the Shakespeare Reloaded website. He is author of Teaching Shakespeare and Marlowe: Learning versus the System (2013) and The English Mannerist Poets and the Visual Arts (1998), and editor of The Early Modern Grotesque: English Sources and Documents 1500-1700 (2019) and Eliza's Babes; Or The Virgin's Offering (1652): A Critical Edition (2001).

Andrew Hiscock is Professor of English at Bangor University, UK.

Lisa Hopkins is Professor of English at University of Sheffield Hallam. She has published numerous works on Shakespeare including her most recent work, Beginning Shakespeare (2005) and has written on film adaptations including Screening the Gothic. She is the Senior Editor of the online journal, Early Modern Literary Studies.