Shakespeare and the Problem Play : Complex Forms, Crossed Genres and Moral Quandaries

E. L. Risden

ISBN 10: 078647243X / ISBN 13: 9780786472437

Published by Mcfarland, 2012

About this Item

nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - Shakespeare's plays provide a rich source of genre variation as well as moral or ethical issues that invite deep study. The genre issue often proves the very moral crux where Shakespeare raises the most complex questions. He aimed to build good plays, not simple fulfillments of genre demands. To him ''good plays'' meant leaving his audience with problems to consider.This book begins with those works most commonly appearing in studies of problem plays, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure; moves to some comedic problem plays, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Twelfth Night; and then to tragic problem plays, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. It concludes with some problems in the history and romance genres for the issues they raise in love, adventure, and governance: Henry IV, Part 1, Henry V, Cymbeline, The Tempest, and Love's Labor's Lost.

Seller Inventory # 9780786472437

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Shakespeare and the Problem Play : Complex Forms, Crossed Genres and Moral Quandaries
• Publisher: Mcfarland
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 078647243X
• ISBN 13: 9780786472437
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 14D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 14 millimeters depth
• Weight: 387 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Shakespeare's plays provide a rich source of genre variation as well as moral or ethical issues that invite deep study. The genre issue often proves the very moral crux where Shakespeare raises the most complex questions. He aimed to build good plays, not simple fulfillments of genre demands. To him "good plays" meant leaving his audience with problems to consider.

This book begins with those works most commonly appearing in studies of problem plays, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure; moves to some comedic problem plays, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Twelfth Night; and then to tragic problem plays, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. It concludes with some problems in the history and romance genres for the issues they raise in love, adventure, and governance: Henry IV, Part 1, Henry V, Cymbeline, The Tempest, and Love's Labor's Lost.

About the Author

E.L. Risden, emeritus professor of English at St. Norbert College, lives in De Pere, Wisconsin, where he continues to write literary and movie scholarship, speculative fiction, and occasional poetry.