Book

Shakespeare's unreformed fictions

Woods, Gillian, 1979-

Overview

In exploring the dramaturgical variety of the \"Catholic\" content of Shakespeare's plays, Gillian Woods argues that habits, idioms, images, and ideas lose their denominational clarity when translated into dramatic fiction: they are awkwardly \"unreformed\" rather than doctrinally Catholic. Providing nuanced readings of generically diverse plays, this book emphasises the creative function of such unreformed material, which Shakespeare uses to pose questions about the relationship between self and other. A wealth of contextual evidence is studied, including catechisms, homilies, religious polemics, news quartos, and non-Shakespearean drama, to highlight how early modern Catholicism variously provoked nostalgia, faith, conversion, humour, fear, and hatred. This book argues that Shakespeare exploits these contradictory attitudes to frame ethical problems, creating fictional plays that consciously engage audiences in the difficult leaps of faith required by both theatre and theology. By recognizing the playfulness of Shakespeare's unreformed fictions, this book offers a different perspective on the interactions between post-Reformation religion and the theatre, and an alternative angle on Shakespeare's interrogation of the scope of dramatic fiction. -- Provided by publisher.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Subject: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Religion. / English drama Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 History and criticism.
• ISBN: 9780199671267, 0199671265

Item info:

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
PR3011.W66 2013	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE