Sign-In
Cart
Role-Playing in Shakespeare
Paperback
Series: Heritage
Medieval & Renaissance HistoryLiterary Criticism
ISBN13: 9781487585105
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: Dec 15 1978
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.87
Height: 0.58 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
The idea that the world is a theatre in which each individual human being plays out the part assigned to him by God, who is both the playwright and the producer of the drama of life, was one of the great commonplaces of the Renaissance and one to which Shakespeare alluded frequently.
Shakespeare's plays, however, transformed this familiar notion from a cliché to a fertile source of invention. In the past two decades, and especially since the publication of Anne Righter's Shakespeare and the Idea of the Play in 1962, the idea has received considerable critical attention. This new work supplements and extends recent studies by examining in detail the function of the histrionic metaphors, both verbal and other, in Shakespeare's plays.
In Role-playing in Shakespeare, Professor Van Laan argues that the theatrical allusions, disguises, impersonations, and conscious or unconscious self-misrepresentations which abound in these plays exemplify a basic concern with role-playing that substantially affects characterization, action, structure, and theme. Surveying the evidence contained in the plays themselves, he defines the term 'role' and proceeds to explore some important general aspects of the topic, including the conception of identity implicit in Shakespearian characterization, the relation of role-playing into dramatic structure, and the recurring theme of the discrepancy between the actor and his part. He then describes the patterns that the role-playing materials assume in the various dramatic genres, comedy, history, and tragedy. The final chapter is a study of one of the primary sources of action in Shakespeare, the internal dramatist.
The wide scope of this enquiry, taking in all of Shakespeare's plays, and the thoroughness with which Van Laan has pursued his argument provide a coherent and illuminating perspective on two of the most intriguing qualities of Shakespeare's work as a whole: the sense of continuity and the sense of an underlying unity within such great variety.
Also in
Literary Criticism
An Empire of Air and Water: Uncolonizable Space in the British Imagination, 175-185
Carroll, Siobhan
Hardcover
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
Sachs, Aaron
Hardcover
Queer Faith: Reading Promiscuity and Race in the Secular Love Tradition
Sanchez, Melissa E.
Paperback
Ancient Rome at the Cinema: Story and Spectacle in Hollywood and Rome
Theodorakopoulos, Elena
Paperback
How to Be a Cat: (Cat Books for Kids, Cat Gifts for Kids, Cat Picture Book)
Swerling, Lisa
Lazar, Ralph
Hardcover
Hidden Hemingway: Inside the Ernest Hemingway Archives of Oak Park
Elder
Vetch, Aaron
Cirino, Mark
Hardcover
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines (Large Print Edition)
Foster, Thomas C.
Paperback
Much ADO about Nothing: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Twelfth Night: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Shakespeare, William
Sparknotes
Paperback
Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It
Hauser, Emily
Paperback
Romeo and Juliet: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
Saunders, George
Paperback
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise
Rundell, Katherine
Hardcover
Mythology (75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition): Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
Hamilton, Edith
Hardcover
Mean Dads for a Better America: The Generous Rewards of an Old-Fashioned Childhood
Shillue, Tom
Paperback
The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition: 40 Love Stories That Inspired Our Favorite Films
Lopez, Kristen
Hardcover
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Paperback
Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the Fairy Tale and the Stories That They Spun
Harrington, Jane
Hardcover
Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear: A. A. Milne and the Creation of Winnie-The-Pooh
Brandreth, Gyles
Hardcover
A Midsummer Night's Dream: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe
Ogden, Emily
Hardcover
Julius Caesar: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
The Odyssey: An Illustrated Guide: A Character-By-Character Guide to the Story of Odysseus
Metzger, Doug
Hardcover
The Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women: Serving Tea with a Side of Scorn
Reed, Emily
Hardcover
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded
Fadiman, Clifton
Major, John S.
Paperback
As You Like It: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Shakespeare, William
Sparknotes
Paperback
The Greek Tragedies: Seventeen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Euripides
Paperback
The Dream Factory: London's First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare
Swift, Daniel
Hardcover
A Treacherous Secret Agent: How Literature Spoke Truth to Power During the Red Scare
Garber, Marjorie
Hardcover