Shakespeare

The Shakespeare category, is a collection of theatre-based study guides which aim to introduce students (including those with little or no prior experience of the field) to the worlds of Shakespeare and his theatre revealed in his most famous plays.

These guides document a man of the theatre, a professional actor before he was a playwright and a resident dramatist who knew intimately the actors for whom he wrote. The origins of early modern English drama are explored and of the theatres that were built for it. Attitudes to theatre and to players, and what audiences expected of both, are explored in the contexts of the constraints of the acting space and the political culture. They take into account the conditions of Jacobethan production, textual variations, and aspects of modern performance, rather than the background of ideas or critical interpretations.

The guides include very useful the summaries of the conclusions of recent research into theatrical conditions, conventions and concepts in the time of Shakespeare. Readers can explore an overview of Shakespeare’s life and career summarising Elizabethan attitudes to History and Politics, concepts of the cosmos, theological issues such as Free Will and the Fall of Man, and the tensions that ultimately destroyed consensus on these matters.

The Bibliographies include the current major editions, major film-adaptations, and a selection of both the best criticism and the most useful websites.

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