William Shakespeare (1564 to 1616 CE) was an Elizabethan era actor, poet and playwright in London, although he was from Stratford-upon-Avon in
Warwickshire, England. Perhaps best remembered for his plays, Shakespeare employed a variety of literary forms and genres, which include:
When searching MICAL or when searching a database, the following Subject Headings can be used in a "Subject" search. Below are sample searches that link to the catalog, including searches for author, character names, play or sonnet titles, types of resources (biographies, bibliographies, reference works, etc.), adaptations, and more.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
Below are links to relevant books in the catalog.
Shakespeare as Cultural Catalyst [Shakespeare Survey 64] by
Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948, Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies and of the year's major British performances. The theme for volume 64 is 'Shakespeare as Cultural Catalyst'. The complete set of Survey volumes is also available online at http://www.cambridge.org/online/shakespearesurvey. This fully searchable resource enables users to browse by author, essay and volume, search by play, theme and topic, and save and bookmark their results.
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New Readings of the Merchant of Venice by
The last decade has witnessed a spate of high-profile presentations of The Merchant of Venice: the 2004 Michael Radford film, 2010's New York City "Shakespeare in the Park" production, as well as the play's Tony Award-nominated 2010-11 Broadway run. Likewise, new scholarly works such as Kenneth Gross's Shylock is Shakespeare (2006) and Janet Adelman's Blood Relations (2008) have offered poignant insights into this play. Why has this drama garnered so much attention of late? What else can we learn from this contentious comedy? How else can we read the drama's characters? Where do studies of The Merchant of Venice go from here?This collection offers readers sundry answers to these questions by showcasing a sampling of ways this culturally arresting play can be read and interpreted. The strength of this monograph lies in the disparate approaches its contributors offer - from a feminist view of Portia and Nerissa's friendship to psychoanalytic readings of allegories between the play and Shakespeare's Pericles to a reading of a Manga comic book version of The Merchant of Venice. Each essay is supported by a strong basis in traditional close reading practices. Our collection of scholars then buttresses such work with the theoretical or pedagogical frameworks that reflect their area of expertise. This collection offers readers different critical lenses through which to approach the primary text.Although Shakespeare scholars and graduate students will no doubt appreciate and employ the work of this collection, the primary audience of this anthology is undergraduate students and the professors who work with them. Many budding scholars have had the experience of checking out a monograph from the library and then finding it was a waste of time because the author spends three hundred pages discussing a perspective of which they have no interest. With this collection, students will not only see how multi-faceted interpretations of the play can be but they also are more likely to find essays that appeal to their own research interests.
Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare's Sonnets by
In "Why Lyrics Last, " the internationally acclaimed critic Brian Boyd turns an evolutionary lens on the subject of lyric verse. He finds that lyric making, though it presents no advantages for the species in terms of survival and reproduction, is universal across cultures because it fits constraints of the human mind. An evolutionary perspective especially when coupled with insights from aesthetics and literary history has much to tell us about both verse and the lyrical impulse. Boyd places the writing of lyrical verse within the human disposition to play with pattern, and in an extended example he uncovers the many patterns to be found within Shakespeare s "Sonnets." Shakespeare s bid for readership is unlike that of any sonneteer before him: he deliberately avoids all narrative, choosing to maximize the openness of the lyric and demonstrating the power that verse can have when liberated of story. In eschewing narrative, Shakespeare plays freely with patterns of other kinds: words, images, sounds, structures; emotions and moods; argument and analogy; and natural rhythms, in daily, seasonal, and life cycles. In the originality of his stratagems, and in their sheer number and variety, both within and between sonnets, Shakespeare outdoes all competitors. A reading of the "Sonnets" informed by evolution is primed to attend to these complexities and better able to appreciate Shakespeare s remarkable gambit for immortal fame."
Questions of Authority : A Reading of Hamlet by
This book studies the questions of authority and authorship in William Shakespeare's problematic masterpiece Hamlet. It argues that the Bard seeks to eternalize himself through his play, that Hamlet dramatizes the authorial quest for sempiternity. As the epigraph to this book indicates, authors have since the age of the pyramids – and probably before it – sought to live forever. Shakespeare was no exception. However, his medium, that of theatre, is usually associated with the present.This book approaches the strategies of authorial survival from a perspective that is theoretically and historically eclectic. It is, therefore, informed by works that belong to different eras and that are not separated by time alone. They are brought together by the theme of sempiternity. The challenging task of dealing with such a theme is made even more arduous by the nature of the play itself. Hamlet denies its readers the satisfaction they crave. In this play, Keats'negative capability is a luxury that no one can afford, be they critics or characters. In Hamlet, the answer is always with the author who comes in questionable shapes, assuring everyone that he has more to tell. His authority does not hinder the endless proliferation of meaning, however, but, rather, guarantees it.
Want to see Shakespeare in action? Use our video databases to watch any of 37 Shakespeare plays that were televised by the BBC, including The Tempest linked below.
