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Examines Shakespearean drama's Christian overtones, explaining why they have been ignored for so long and how those overtones can influence one's interpretation of Shakespeare's work.
An invaluable critical analysis of how religion shapes politics, encouraging both submission and, at times, revolution.
This book follows the recent ‘turn to religion’ that has been so important to English Studies in the 21st century, and builds on many of the recent biographies of Shakespeare that have explored the playwright’s religious views. While noticing biography, the focus of this book is upon the onstage action of King Lear, arguing that its ‘theodicy’ can be understood as the expansion of theological vision. The book makes this argument by drawing on an approach to literature known as ‘theological aesthetics,’ an approach pioneered by Hans Urs Von Balthasar. Engaging with not only W.R. Elton, but also other Shakespeare scholars such as Jan Kott and Kenneth Muir, it combines theological argument, performance criticism, and dramatic analysis to argue for a theological reading of King Lear.
This book expands upon recent historical analysis of Shakespeare’s Othello, which has foregrounded issues of race, colonialism, and feminism, in order to show how the discourse of religion might affect our understanding of this play. It specifically looks at how the discourse of Catholicism, itself a highly contested topic in Shakespeare’s world, affects our understanding of Desdemona, whom the play so directly compares to perhaps the most divisive and controversial figure of the entire ‘Reformation’ period, Mary the Mother of God. Explaining how this comparison is developed and clarified by Shakespeare, this book explores the difference our interpretation of Desdemona’s ‘Marian’ dimension might make to critical understanding of the tragedy of Othello.
A new, annotated edition of Leon Trotsky's classic study of the relationship of politics and art.
In this collection of essays, the author combines a series of assessments of "classic" and "lost" texts in the US Marxist literary tradition, and analyzes developments in Marxist scholarship by Robin Kelley, Michael Lowy, James Murphy, Paula Rabinowitz and Alexander Saxton.
Revolutionary and writer: how do they fit together in one person’s work? Using literary texts from French, German, Russian and American pro-revolutionary writers, Sheila Delany examines the synergy of politics and rhetoric, art and social commitment. The writers she considers gave voice to the hopes of their time. Some led the events in person as well as through their writing; others worked to build a movement. Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg, Mao, Sylvain Maréchal, Boris Lavrenov, Bertolt Brecht and others are here: consummate rhetoricians all, not necessarily on the same page politically but for the revolutions of their day.
A Companion to Europe Since 1945 provides a stimulating guide to numerous important developments which have influenced the political, economic, social, and cultural character of Europe during and since the Cold War. Includes 22 original essays by an international team of expert scholars Examines the social, intellectual, economic, cultural, and political changes that took place throughout Europe in the Cold War and Post Cold War periods Discusses a wide range of topics including the Single Market, European-American relations, family life and employment, globalization, consumption, political parties, European decolonization, European identity, security and defence policies, and Europe's fight against international terrorism Presents Europe in a broad geographical conception, to give equal weighting to developments in the Eastern and Western European states
The nineteenth-century was a time of accelerated change and stark contradictions. It was marked by stability, advancement and reform, but also by widening inequalities, spiritual crisis and social unrest. Identity and gender came under pressure, religious belief was called into question, and the condition of women and children seemed to belie the much-vaunted idea of progress. Essays in this book explore how these contradictions and concerns are reflected in nineteenth-century literature. In discussing historical figures, characters and plots that are variously vulnerable and/or resilient, the essays reflect the breadth of nineteenth-century literature, from realist and sensational fiction to autobiography and poetry. Besides providing insights into the transfigurative role writing played, both as a means to express vulnerability and as a resilience process, the essays also foster further reflection on two timeless dimensions of the human condition.
The study and criticism of Shakespeare has always been of major interest in the literary world but never more than in the last ten years. The essays in this volume explore Shakespeare's art that is complementary to the experience of his plays. The feelings of the essays create a sensitive atmosphere for creative study.