The Purpose of Playing : Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of the Elizabethan Theatre

Montrose, Louis

University of Chicago Press（1996/06発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 242 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780226534831
• DDC分類 822.33

基本説明

Part of a larger project to examine the Elizabethan politics of representation, Louis Montrose's The Purpose of Playing refigures the social and cultural context within which Elizabethan drama was created.

Full Description

Part of a larger project to examine the Elizabethan politics of representation, this work refigures the social and cultural context within which Elizabethan drama was created. The author first locates the public and professional theatre within the ideological and material framework of Elizabethan culture. He considers the role of the professional theatre and theatricality in the cultural transformation that was concurrent with religious and socio-political change, and then concentrates upon the formal means by which Shakespeare's Elizabethan plays called into question the absolutist assertions of the Elizabethan state. Drawing dramatic examples from the genres of tragedy and history, Montrose finally focuses his cultural-historical perspective on "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The book demonstrates how language and literary imagination shape cultural value, belief and understanding including social distinction and interaction, and political control and contestation.

Contents

Acknowledgments To The Reader Prologue Texts and Histories Pt. 1: Drama, Theatre, Society, and the State: Form and Pressure I: The Reformation of Playing II: A Theatre of Changes III: Anatomies of Playing IV: The Theatre, the City, and the Crown V: From the Stage to the State VI: The Power of Personation VII: The Cross-Purposes of Playing Pt. 2: The Shaping Fantasies of A Midsummer Night's Dream VIII: The Discord of This Concord IX: Stories of the Night X: The Imperial Votaress XI: Bottom's Dream Epilogue: A Kingdom of Shadows Index