r e n a i s sa n c e l i t e r at u r e New
New in 2011
Shakespearean Genealogies of Power
Richard II
A Whispering of Nothing in Hamlet, Richard II, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, and The Winter’s Tale
Edited by Jeremy Lopez, University of Toronto, Canada
Anselm Haverkamp, New York University, USA
Arguably the first play in a Shakespearean tetralogy, Richard II is a unique and compelling political drama whose themes still resonate today. It is one of the few Shakespeare plays written entirely in verse and its format presents unique theatrical challenges. Politically engaged and controversial, it raises crucial debates about the relationship between Early modern art, audience response and state power.
Shakespearean Genealogies of Power proposes a new view on Shakespeare’s involvement with the legal sphere: as a visible space between the spheres of politics and law and well able to negotiate legal and political, even constitutional concerns, Shakespeare’s theatre opened up a new perspective on normativity. His plays reflect, even create, ‘history’ in a new sense on the premises of the older conceptions of historical and legal exemplarity: examples, cases, and instances are to be reflected rather than treated as straightforwardly didactic or salvific. Thus, what comes to be recognized, reflected and acknowledged has a disowning, alienating effect, whose enduring aftermath rather than its theatrical immediacy counts and remains effective.
October 2010: 234 x 156: 192pp Hb: 978-0-415-59344-1: $125.00 Pb: 978-0-415-59345-8: $42.95 For more information, visit: www.routledge.com/9780415593458
New in 2011
Shakespeare, the Bible, and the History of the Material Book Contested Scriptures Edited by Travis DeCook, Carleton University, Canada and Alan Galey, University of Toronto, Canada Series: Routledge Studies in Shakespeare Why do Shakespeare and the English Bible seem to have an inherent relationship with each other? How have these two monumental traditions in the history of the book functioned as mutually reinforcing sources of cultural authority? How do material books and related reading practices serve as specific sites of intersection between these two textual traditions? This collection makes a significant intervention in our understanding of Shakespeare, the Bible, and the role of textual materiality in the construction of cultural authority. Departing from conventional source study, it questions the often naturalized links between the Shakespearean and biblical corpora, examining instead the historically contingent ways these links have been forged. The volume brings together leading scholars in Shakespeare, book history, and the Bible as literature, whose essays converge on the question of Scripture as source versus Scripture as process – whether that scripture is biblical or Shakespearean – and in turn explore themes such as cultural authority, pedagogy, secularism, textual scholarship, and the materiality of texts.
New Critical Essays
Series: Shakespeare Criticism
This collection provides a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the critical and theatrical history of the play. The substantial introduction provides a history of Richard II, its performance and reception and a particular engagement with the unique qualities of the play and the character of Richard. The twelve essays by leading and emerging scholars in the field then adopt an eclectic range of critical approaches that encourage scholars and students to pursue new and imaginative directions with the text. December 2011: 234 x 156: 340pp Hb: 978-0-415-56996-5: $135.00 For more information, visit: www.routledge.com/9780415569965
Twelfth Night New Critical Essays Edited by James Schiffer, Northern Michigan University, USA Series: Shakespeare Criticism This volume in the Shakespeare Criticism series offers a range of approaches to Twelfth Night, including its critical reception, performance history, and relation to early modern culture. James Schiffer’s extensive introduction surveys the play’s critical reception and performance history, while individual essays explore a variety of topics relevant to a full appreciation of the play: early modern notions of love, friendship, sexuality, madness, festive ritual, exoticism, social mobility, and detection. The contributors approach these topics from a variety of perspectives, such as new critical, new historicist, cultural materialist, feminist and queer theory, and performance criticism, occasionally combining several approaches within a single essay. The new essays from leading figures in the field explore and extend the key debates surrounding Twelfth Night, creating the ideal book for readers approaching this text for the first time or wishing to further their knowledge of this stimulating, much loved play. Contributors include: James Schiffer, Christa Jansohn, Ivo Kamps, Marcela Kostihova, Cynthia Lewis, Catherine Lisak, Laurie Osborne, Patricia Parker, Elizabeth Pentland, Alan Powers, Nathalie Rivere de Carles, David Schalkwyk, Bruce Smith, Goran Stanivukovic, Jennifer Vaught. December 2010: 234 x 156: 272pp Hb: 978-0-415-97335-9: $110.00 For more information, visit: www.routledge.com/9780415973359
May 2011: 229 x 152: 256pp Hb: 978-0-415-88350-4: $110.00 For more information, visit: www.routledge.com/9780415883504
Browse and order online: www.routledge.com/literature
Renaissance Literature Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture series From Shakespeare to Jonson, Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture looks at both the literature and culture of the early modern period. New
Narrative Developments from Chaucer to Defoe Edited by Gerd Bayer, University of Erlangen, Germany and Ebbe Klitgard, Roskilde University, Denmark This book analyzes how narrative technique developed from the late Middle Ages to the beginning of the eighteenth-century. The contributors address issues such as subjectivity, performance, voice, narrative time, character development and genre, placing their readings of early modern prose texts within the diachronic frame of the overall topic. Individual chapters treats texts from a variety of genres, offering analyses of individual texts in the context of changes and developments within literary forms. The book in its entirety covers a period of approximately 350 years, from 1370 to 1720. December 2010: 229 x 152: 256pp Hb: 978-0-415-87948-4: $105.00 For more information, visit: www.routledge.com/9780415879484
New
Ecocriticism and Early Modern English Literature Green Pastures Todd A. Borlik, Bloomsburg University, USA In this timely new study, Borlik reveals the surprisingly rich potential for the emergent ‘green’ criticism to yield fresh insights into early modern English literature. Deftly avoiding the anachronistic casting of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century authors as modern environmentalists, he argues that environmental issues, such as nature’s personhood, deforestation, energy use, air quality, climate change, and animal sentience, are formative concerns in many early modern texts. Situating plays and poems alongside an eclectic array of secondary sources, including herbals, forestry laws, husbandry manuals, almanacs, and philosophical treatises on politics and ethics, Borlik demonstrates that Elizabethan and Jacobean authors were very much aware of, and concerned about, the impact of human beings on their natural surroundings. October 2010: 229 x 152: 292pp Hb: 978-0-415-87861-6: $105.00 For more information, visit: www.routledge.com/9780415878616
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