Metatheater: The Example of Shakespeare

Judd D. Hubert

ISBN 10: 0803223552 / ISBN 13: 9780803223554

Published by University of Nebraska Press, 1991

About this Item

Rear board bumped and creased. Otherwise straight, with clean text and a strong binding. Missing dust jacket. 161 pp.

Seller Inventory # 220817017

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Metatheater: The Example of Shakespeare
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803223552
• ISBN 13: 9780803223554
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Clean & Unmarked
• Dust Jacket Condition: Missing
• Weight: 25 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • Shakespeare

About this title

Synopsis

Arguing against the notion that theatrical success depends upon a spectator's suspension of disbelief, this study emphasizes the audience's recognition of theatre as theatre, of rhetorical categories, and of the by-play between mimetic representation and explicit artistic conventions. It discusses the shifts between stage action and appeals to the audience to gauge the relative distances of actor and spectator (King Lear, for example, begins as the master of all around him but ends as a helpless witness, moving steadily toward the audience with enormous dramatic effect). Treating six plays - "Much Ado About Nothing", "Twelfth Night", "Measure for Measure", "Othello", "Hamlet" and "The Winter's Tale" - and referring to many others, it takes advantage of Shakespeare's diversity to elucidate fundamental questions about how theatre elicits effects.