![]() The point is for Ryan to be able to free himself of the burden of history and the weight of recent scholarship in order to simply read Shakespeare, unshackled.Īnd why not? The readings are detailed, insightful, loving, and intelligent they engage deeply, at times idiosyncratically, with the plays. Shakespeare himself seems to have had a lively interest in all these things. Now, it is quite possible to be interested in cosmetics, as well as the power of acting, or to be fascinated by maps, as well as poetry. Instead, he wants to “engage with each play first and foremost as a singular work of dramatic and poetic art” (xi). no colon, no subtitle.Īlthough earlier in his career Ryan edited a reader on new historicism and cultural materialism, here he is disdainful of anyone invested in “shackling to extraneous archival material,” especially those “cultural historians more interested in maps, make-up or medicine than in the power of plays” (xii). No introduction containing a theoretical overview followed by chapter summaries. He cheerfully rejects most contemporary Shakespeare criticism along with most of the apparatus of a contemporary scholarly study. Kiernan Ryan’s Shakespeare’s Comedies is a solid collection of old-fashioned close readings. ![]()
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