Overview
In this study of the Italian settings in 11 of Shakespeare's plays, Jack D'Amico examines the essential characteristics of 16th-century Italian society and the Italian city-state as they come to life on Shakespeare's stage. Through the medium of his theatre, we see how he creates an urban world open to exchange and decidedly theatrical in spirit. We witness Shakespeare's Italy become, simultaneously, the distant city and the mirror of his own Renaissance London. Documented with primary and secondary sources, the book begins by reviewing what Shakespeare may have known about Italy, both the attractions and the dangers of Italian society as they may have appeared in the contemporary popular imagination. D'Amico observes that the dangers seem more pronounced in the tragedies, while the allure of a foreign city, where change and order can coexist, seems to predominate in the comedies. Structuring the book around specific features of the imagined urban setting, he discusses the piazza, the garden, the street, interior spaces, the court, and the temple, demonstrating that the city's limits and contradictions lend a special kind of consistency to the world of Shakespeare's plays.
Full Product Details
Author: Jack D'Amico
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Imprint: University Press of Florida
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.20cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9780813018782
ISBN 10: 0813018781
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 25 March 2001
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: Out of stock
Reviews
"""A must-read for any student of Renaissance culture as well as for Shakespeare scholars. It shows how and why Italian city life reverberated even across the Channel to enliven the English stage."" - Silvia Ruffo Fiore, University of South Florida; ""D' Amico's book gives new life to an old idea - that Shakespeare's plays are essentially affirmative - and this is a message that not only seems to me deeply true but also will be welcomed by very many readers."" - Dain A. Trafton, professor emeritus, Rockford College"""
A must-read for any student of Renaissance culture as well as for Shakespeare scholars. It shows how and why Italian city life reverberated even across the Channel to enliven the English stage. - Silvia Ruffo Fiore, University of South Florida; D' Amico's book gives new life to an old idea - that Shakespeare's plays are essentially affirmative - and this is a message that not only seems to me deeply true but also will be welcomed by very many readers. - Dain A. Trafton, professor emeritus, Rockford College
Author Information
Jack D' Amico, professor of English at Canisius College, is coeditor of The Legacy of Benedetto Croce: Contemporary Critical Views and author of The Moor in English Renaissance Drama (UPE, 1991).
