Pursuing Shakespeare's Dramaturgy: Some Contexts, Resources, and Strategies in His PlaymakingJohn C. Meagher
About the Author:
John C. Meagher is based at the University of Toronto. His Shakespeare's Shakespeare (1997) established principles for Shakespeare studies that are here explored and developed from new angles and with a more comprehensive scope, toward a clearer understanding of how Shakespeare made plays and how they may be most adequately read.
This book is about Shakespeare's stagecraft. It presents examinations of the conditions under which Shakespeare worked, including limitations and opportunities offered by circumstances that affected how his plays were written. It attempts to recover more in Shakespeare's plays than is normally appreciated, and to discover previously unnoticed dramatic strategies embedded in the Shakespearean texts. This book is aimed at Shakespeare as a playwright--or, more exactly, a playmaker--of his time. It considers only the earliest texts of the plays, only the resources available when they were written, and only what can be seen in the plays in conjunctions with the evidence from the days of Shakespeare's career. The book is meant to demonstrate, through a variety of evidences, that Shakespeare not only wrote his plays but designed them as well; and that both what is covert in the texts and what is partially concealed testify to the need for Shakespeare to be authoritatively present as the plays were rehearsed toward their eventual public presenation. Casting Shakespeare in this role has important implications. A dramaturgical study of the plays shows a substantial number of instances in which a special design can be inferred from the text even in the absence of a correlative stage direction. Seeing Shakespeare as producer and director allows us to understand how he could build special dramatic effects into his plays by being in charge of the costumes used, the stage properties, the music and other sound effects. It explains how he was able to manage the number of players economically even when the number of characters was much larger, and how he could arrange special dramatic effects by having a particular actor play two strategically linked parts. Read a review of this book:
Review 1
Review 2
Review 3 ISBN 0-8386-3993-3, Price $75.00
About FDU Press New Releases Book Reviews Submission Guidelines
TO ORDER BOOKS:
2010 Eastpark Boulevard
Cranbury, New Jersey 08512
Phone (609) 655-4770
Fax (609) 655-8366
TO REQUEST A CATALOGUE:
M-GH2-01
285 Madison Avenue
Madison, New Jersey 07940
Phone (973) 443-8564
Fax (973) 443-8364
fdupress@fdu.edu
TO RECEIVE UPDATES ON NEWLY RELEASED TITLES BY EMAIL:
fdupress@fdu.edu
The FDU Press has particular strengths in literary studies, world history and politics, biography, film, ethnic studies, sociology, the Civil War, art, religion, local history, and urban studies.
