Shakespeare

Contents:

Getting Started • What You Already Know (and What You Don?t) • Your Course of Study • How to Cope • This Book • How to Proceed
Chapter 1: Dealing with Genre • One-minute overview • The Comedies • The Tragedies • The Histories • Mixed-genre Plays • Tutorial
Chapter 2: Setting the Scene • One-minute overview • The British Isles • Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe • Classical History and Mythology • Somewhere Else, Some Other Time • Tutorial
Chapter 3: Untangling the Structure? One-minute overview • The Main Storyline • Double Structure One: Subplot • Double Structure Two: Interspersing • Double Structure Three: Chiasmus • Dynamic Structures • Tutorial
Chapter 4: Considering Character? One-minute overview • Stock Character Types • Heroes of Tragedy and History • Heroines of Tragedy and History • Men in the Comedies • Women in the Comedies • Other Characters • Tutorial
Chapter 5: Analysing the Text • One-minute overview • Iambic Verse • Rhyme Patterns • Blank Verse • Feminine Endings • Other Verse Forms • Prose • Set Pieces • Interaction • Tutorial
Chapter 6: Performing the Plays • One-minute overview • Itinerant Players • The London Theatres: Culture • The London Theatres: Location • The London Theatres: Architecture • Audience Composition • Zonal Staging • Choreography • Emblematic Acting • Modern Performance • Tutorial
Chapter 7: Meeting the Past • One-minute overview • Social Status • The Monarchy • The Economy • Religion • Gender • Europe and Beyond • Tutorial
Chapter 8: Dealing with Critics? One-minute overview • Managing Critics • Liberal Humanism • Structuralism, Deconstruction and Post?Structuralism • Psychoanalysis • Feminisms and Gender • New Historicism • Cultural Materialism • Performance • Postmodernism and Post-Colonial Theory • Tutorial
Chapter 9: Reading the Poetry • One-minute overview • The Sonnets: Overview • The Sonnets: 1-17 • The Sonnets: the Young Man • The Sonnets: the Dark Lady • Venus and Adonis • The Rape of Lucrece • A Lover's Complaint • The Passionate Pilgrim • The Phoenix and the Turtle • Tutorial
Chapter 10: Resource Centre • One-minute overview • Sample Essay Questions • Sample Exam Paper • Further Reading • Reviewed Shakespeare Websites
Chapter 11: Course Materials: A Midsummer Night's Dream • One-minute overview • Play Breakdown • Discussion Points
Chapter 12: Course Materials: The Tempest • One-minute overview • Play Breakdown • Discussion Points
Chapter 13: Course Materials: Romeo and Juliet • One-minute overview • Play Breakdown • Discussion Points
Chapter 14: Course Materials: King Lear • One-minute overview • Play Breakdown • Discussion Points
Chapter 15: Course Materials: Hamlet • One-minute overview • Play Breakdown • Discussion Points
Chapter 16: Course Materials: Macbeth • One-minute overview • Play Breakdown • Discussion Points

Index
 

About the Author:

Paul Innes Ph.D. teaches literature, drama and critical theory at Glasgow University. He is the author of Shakespeare and the English Renaissance Sonnet: Verses of Feigning Love. He lives in Glasgow with a growing family and plays strategy games for fun.