The Winter's Tale : A Critical Reader

Peter Kirwan

ISBN 10: 1350439290 / ISBN 13: 9781350439290

Published by The Arden Shakespeare, 2026

About this Item

nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - An international group of scholars reappraise The Winter's Tale through a series of research essays covering performance history, critical history, and new interpretations. Navigating the play's fluctuating genre conventions, onstage spectacle and leaps across time, scholars consider how eco-materiality, radical hospitality, childhood, gender, and critical race studies shape contemporary understandings and staging of a play that defies easy definition.By charting these changing interpretive trends, readers are introduced to a rich body of scholarship which shows how the play can be used to confront the experiences of those marginalized by race, age, gender, and nationality, to place fresh attention on the economic and material structures that define the dramatic plot of the play. As The Winter's Tale's depictions of patriarchal violence, vulnerability, economic disparity, border crossings and exploitation continue to draw attention, this guide serves as an invaluable resource for scholars, students and audiences alike. Complete with pedagogical tools including resources and strategies for approaching the play in the classroom, this Critical Reader is an essential collection of scholarship on one of Shakespeare's most audacious experiments.

Seller Inventory # 9781350439290

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Winter's Tale : A Critical Reader
• Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350439290
• ISBN 13: 9781350439290
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 216W x 140H x 17D millimeters 216 millimeters width by 140 millimeters height by 17 millimeters depth
• Weight: 376 grams

About this title

Synopsis

An international group of scholars reappraise The Winter’s Tale through a series of research essays covering performance history, critical history, and new interpretations. Navigating the play’s fluctuating genre conventions, onstage spectacle and leaps across time, scholars consider how eco-materiality, radical hospitality, childhood, gender, and critical race studies shape contemporary understandings and staging of a play that defies easy definition. By charting these changing interpretive trends, readers are introduced to a rich body of scholarship which shows how the play can be used to confront the experiences of those marginalized by race, age, gender, and nationality, to place fresh attention on the economic and material structures that define the dramatic plot of the play. As The Winter’s Tale’s depictions of patriarchal violence, vulnerability, economic disparity, border crossings and exploitation continue to draw attention, this guide serves as an invaluable resource for scholars, students and audiences alike. Complete with pedagogical tools including resources and strategies for approaching the play in the classroom, this Critical Reader is an essential collection of scholarship on one of Shakespeare’s most audacious experiments.

About the Authors

Peter Kirwan is Associate Professor in Shakespeare and Performance at Mary Baldwin University, USA.

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.

Todd Andrew Borlik is Clinical Assistant Teaching Professor at Purdue University, USA.

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