Shakespeares Tragedies A Very Short Introduction

Author : Stanley Wells
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198785291
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Shakespeare's Tragedies written by Stanley Wells and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shakespeare's tragedies contain an astonishing variety of suffering, from suicides and murders to dismemberments and grief. Stanley Wells considers how the bard's tragic plays drew on the literary and theatrical conventions of his time. Discussing the individual plays, he also explores why tragedy is regarded as a fit subject for entertainment.

Author : Adrian Poole
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192802356
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction written by Adrian Poole and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-08-11 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What has tragedy been made to mean by dramatists, story-tellers, critics, philosophers, politicians, and journalists? This work shows the relevance of tragedy to the modern world, and extends beyond drama and literature into visual art and everyday experience.

Author : Stanley Wells
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 019102869X
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction written by Stanley Wells and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-04-23 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new offering from Stanley Wells, the pre-eminent Shakespearian scholar, comes a Very Short Introduction to the life and writings of the world's greatest and best-known dramatists: William Shakespeare. Looking at his early life and education, Wells explores Shakespeare's social and intellectual background and the literary traditions on which Shakespeare drew. Examining the theatres and theatrical profession of the time, he also considers how Shakespeare experienced this world, both as an actor and as a writer. Examining Shakespeare's narrative poems, sonnets, and all of his plays, Wells outlines their sources, style, and originality over the course of Shakespeare's career, to consider the fundamental impact his work has had for subsequent generations. Written with enthusiasm and flair by a scholar who has devoted a lifetime to the study of Shakespeare and his works, this is an engaging and authoritative introduction. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Stanley Wells
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191088080
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction written by Stanley Wells and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-13 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tragedy, including grief, pain and suffering, is a common theme in Shakespeare's plays, often leading to the death of at least one character, if not several. Yet such themes can also be found in Shakespearian plays which are classed as comedies, or histories. What is it which makes a Shakespearian tragedy, and what dramatic themes and conventions did the bard draw upon when writing them? In this Very Short Introduction Stanley Wells considers what is meant by the word 'tragedy', and discusses nine of Shakespeare's iconic tragic plays. He explores how the early definitions and theoretical discussions of the concept of tragedy in Shakespeare's time would have influenced these plays, along with the literary influence of Seneca. Wells also considers Shakespeare's uses of the word 'tragedy' itself, analysing whether he had any overall concept of the genre in relation to the drama, and looking at the ways in which the theatrical conventions of his time shaped his plays, such as the use of boy players in women's roles and the physical structures of the playhouses. Offering a critical analysis of each of the nine plays in turn, Wells concludes by discussing why tragedy is regarded as fit subject for entertainment, and what it is about tragic plays that audiences find so enjoyable. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Michael Mangan
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317895045
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book A Preface to Shakespeare's Comedies written by Michael Mangan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-06 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an informative and interesting guide to the comedies of love - The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like it and Twelfth Night - which were written in the early part of Shakespeare's career. As well as supplying dramatic and critical analysis, this study sets the plays within their wider social and artistic context. Michael Mangan begins by considering the social function of laughter, the use of humour in drama for handling social tensions in Elizabethan and Jacobean society and the resulting expectations the audience would have had about comedy in the theatre. In the second section he discusses the individual plays in the light of recent critical and theoretical research. The useful reference section at the end gives the reader a short bibliographic guide to key historical figures relevant to a study of Shakespeare's comedies and a detailed critical bibliography.

Author : Adrian Poole
Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Tragedy written by Adrian Poole and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 1987 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How and why does tragedy matter? This book approaches this question through a close reading of Greek tragedies that is designed both for readers with Greek and those with none. It explores Greek plays alongside three of Shakespeare's tragedies: "Macbeth", "Hamlet" and "King Lear".

Author : William Shakespeare
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199591156
Total Pages : 3393 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The New Oxford Shakespeare written by William Shakespeare and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 3393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition is part of the landmark New Oxford Shakespeare--an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare's works, edited afresh from all the surviving original versions of his work, and drawing on the latest literary, textual, and theatrical scholarship.This single illustrated volume is expertly edited to frame the surviving original versions of Shakespeare's plays, poems, and early musical scores around the latest literary, textual, and theatrical scholarship to date.

Author : Warren Chernaik
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521855071
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's History Plays written by Warren Chernaik and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible and lively 2007 introduction to Shakespeare's history plays and their tradition on stage and film.

Author : Bart van Es
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191034967
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Shakespeare's Comedies: A Very Short Introduction written by Bart van Es and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-24 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the early 1590s to The Two Noble Kinsmen at the end of his career around 1614, Shakespeare wrote at least eighteen plays that can be called 'comedies': a far higher number than that for any other genre in which he wrote. So what is a Shakespearean comedy? We associate these plays with such themes as mistaken identities, happy marriages, and exuberant cross dressing, but how representative are these of the oeuvre as a whole? In this Very Short Introduction, Bart van Es explores the full range of the playwright's comic writing, from the neat classical plotting of early works like The Comedy of Errors to the corrupt world of the so-called problem plays, written in the middle years of Shakespeare's life. Examining Shakespeare's influences and sources, van Es compares his plays to those of his rivals, and looks at the history of the plays in performance, from the biographies of Shakespeare's original actors to the plays' endless reinvention in modern stage productions and in films. Identifying the key qualities that make Shakespearean comedy distinctive, van Es traces the changing nature of Shakespeare's comic writing over the course of a career that spanned nearly a quarter century of theatrical change. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Tanya Pollard
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198793111
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages written by Tanya Pollard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book argues that rediscovered ancient Greek plays exerted a powerful and uncharted influence on sixteenth-century England's dramatic landscape, not only in academic and aristocratic settings, but also at the heart of the developing commercial theaters."--Introduction, p. 2.