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Shakespeare and the Gods

Shakespeare and the Gods

by VirginiaMasonVaughan (Author), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Author), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Author)

  • New

    Hardcover 2019

    $150.27
Synopsis

Shakespeare and the Gods examines in depth Shakespeare's repeated reliance on allusions to six major Roman gods (Jupiter, Diana, Venus, Mars, Hercules and Ceres) to shape his audience's response to characters and action. The significance of these deities is often lost on contemporary readers and theatre audiences, but during the early modern period Shakespeare could count on many in his audience to understand each deity's complex history and respond to its resonance. Each chapter surveys early modern mythographic writing on the god in question, surveys Shakespeare's references to particular myths in which the god is involved, discusses allusive patterns that repeat throughout the canon, and concludes with a focused discussion of one or two plays in which the god becomes much more than an allusion, shaping in powerful ways our response to the action and characters.

$150.27

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 256
 Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
Published: 24 Jan 2019
ISBN 10: 1474284272
ISBN 13: 9781474284271
Book Overview: Shakespeare and the Gods is a major new critical work exploring the scope and meaning of Shakespeare's allusions to major Roman deities such as Jupiter, Venus, Diana and Hercules.

Media Reviews
Virginia Mason Vaughan's Shakespeare and the Gods is a readable, clear, and intelligently useful guide to the scope and meaning of Shakespeare's allusions to major classical deities. This book deftly explores the ways in which Shakespeare serves as a major interpreter of these classical legends, to the extent that his plays and poems are the texts where we most fully and rewardingly encounter the rich classical tradition of sexual warfare reaching back to Homer, Virgil, and Ovid. -- David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, University of Chicago, USA
Shakespeare and the Gods provides students with much needed information about major figures from classical mythology, the early modern interpretations that Shakespeare would have known, and the role allusions to these gods, or their appearance, play in enriching the moral and psychological meaning of his works. -- Suzanne Gossett, Professor Emerita of English, Loyola University Chicago, USA
Author Bio
Virginia Mason Vaughan is Professor Emerita and Research Professor in the Department of English at Clark University, USA. She is a leading international expert on The Tempest, and co-editor of the Arden Third Series edition of the play. Her publications also include Antony and Cleopatra: Language and Writing (Arden Shakespeare, 2015), The Tempest: A Critical Reader (co-edited with Alden T. Vaughan, Arden Shakespeare, 2014), and Women Making Shakespeare: Text, Reception and Performance (co-edited with Gordon McMullan, Lena Cowen Orlin, Arden Shakespeare, 2013).