Godless Shakespeare

Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8264-9042-1
Verlag: Bloomsbury 3PL

Buch, Englisch, 144 Seiten, Format (B × H): 129 mm x 198 mm, Gewicht: 164 g

Reihe: Shakespeare Now!

Polemic new reading of Shakespeare focusing on atheism, scepticism and belief

Proposes that there is an absence of and hostility to God at the heart of the plays
- Covers range of key plays - problem plays, histories and early comedies
- Suggests links between Shakespearean faith and absence and media representation of religion, politics and culture today, showing how a Shakespearean perspective can problematize and clarify current issues and controversies

SERIES DESCRIPTION
Shakespeare Now! is a series of short books of truly vital literary scholarship, each with its own distinctive form. Shakespeare Now! recaptures the excitement of Shakespeare; it doesn't assume we know him already, or that we know the best methods for approaching his plays. Shakespeare Now! is a new generation of critics, unafraid of risk, on a series of intellectual adventures. Above all - it is a new Shakespeare, freshly present in each volume.

In Godless Shakespeare, Mallin argues that there is a profound absence of, or hostility to, God in Shakespeare's plays. It is clear that Shakespeare engaged with and deployed much of his culture's broadly religious interests: his language is shot through with biblical quotations, priestly sermonizing, Christian imagery and miracle-play style allegory. However, he claims that a counter-discourse also emerges in the works, arguing against God, or the idea of God. This is a polemical account of the absence of God and of belief in the plays, and of how this absence functions in theatrical moments of crux and crisis. Following Dante's three part structure for the Divine Comedy - the first part (Inferno) represents expressions of religious faith in Shakespeare's plays, the second (Purgatorio) sets out more sceptical positions, and the last (Paradiso) articulations of godlessness. The discussion focuses on the moral and spiritual dilemmas of major characters, developing the often subtle transitions between belief, scepticism and atheism and suggesting that there is a liberating potential in unbelief.

Zielgruppe

Academics, Postgraduate, Upper Level Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mallin, Eric S.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Theologie, Doktrine
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Inferno - Religious Faith
Purgatorio - Skepticism
Paradiso - Godlessness
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Eric S. Mallin is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He is the author of Inscribing the Time: Shakespeare and the End of Elizabethan England (Berkeley: U of California P, 1995)

Simon Palfrey is a Fellow of Brasenose College, University of Oxford

Ewan Fernie is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London