Overview

Twelve research articles deal with aspects of religion in the plays of William Shakespeare, from early in the dramatist's career to the end. Ordered by chronology, two chapters focus on history plays; three chapters focus on comedies and three on tragedies; one deals with ""Troilus and Cressida,"" and three chapters deal with the late romances. The anthology does not cover all of Shakespeare's plays and collaborations or the lyric poems. The collection is ecumenical and transnational. While the contributors all recognize that Shakespeare wrote in a Renaissance Christian universe, Christianity is not the only world religion dealt with. Approaches involve history and philosophy as well as theology, and individual perspectives vary. One thing the collection makes clear is that religion, in some sense, operates in every Shakespearean work, and its large spectrum ranges through plot and character from shallow to deep, self-interested to elevated, bloody to harmonious. Religion and religious differences were also part of the fabric and history of the playwright's world, manifesting in the plays in situation, language, and iconography. From various perspectives, a common denominator is that the authors approach aspects of religion as one element in an informed analysis of the works.

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Religion informs all the Bard's writing. In his plays, the transcendental may execute justice according to different faiths, separate dissembling from conversion, offer a pathway to salvation, diffuse the Gods between Homer, Rome, Israel, Islam, fairies, devils, Popes and Protestants: intervening and confusing characters and audiences, then and now. The spiritual inflects history, comedy, romance, and tragedy-as classical hubris or Pirandello's modern ""hole torn in a paper sky."" These inspiring, learned, moving essays can floodlight classrooms and stages: they contribute vividly to recent reassessments of religious foundations in literature and art. Robert L. Patten Lynette S. Autrey Professor Emeritus in Humanities and Emeritus Professor of English Rice University ""Shakespeare and Religion: Global Tapestry, Dramatic Perspectives"", edited by Margie Burns, offers a treasure of historical research and innovative approaches to the question of the connection of religion to Shakespeare's plays. Rather than arguing for Shakespeare's beliefs, the essays in this volume remind us that sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain was a marketplace of ideas as well as a cosmopolitan community of global peoples. From the ancient gods of Homer and Ovid to Jewish conversion narrative and Hebrew mysticism, from the ancient division between pagan and Christian and the recent division between Catholic and Protestant, to an African setting influenced by Coptic Christianity or Muslim teachings, this volume portrays a Shakespeare who drew on a varied knowledge of religion to give his audience glimpses of divine justice or injustice, yet also hope. Jane Donawerth Professor emerita University of Maryland This collection of essays, all of them new, is an interesting and stimulating one that demonstrates the continuing life in its venerable topic. The individual contributors go beyond the traditional and much-debated questions of Protestant vs. Catholic, sometimes visiting surprising places on the map (medieval Judaism, Coptic Christianity), occasionally making sharp interventions into today's news, more generally insisting on religion not as a matter of sectarian identification but as an elevated level of concern, a matter of giving attention to what finally most matters in human life. Shakespeare's works indeed deserve and reward reading at this level, as these essays show in sometimes unexpected ways. Gordon M Braden Professor Emeritus Department of English The University of Virginia

Author Information

Margie Burns, Ph.D., author of ""Religion and Reconstitution in 'Cymbeline, '"" lectures part-time in English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Publications include scholarly and general-interest articles, print and online journalism, and four nonfiction books, most recently ""Publishing Northanger Abbey: Jane Austen and the Writing Profession"" (Vernon Press, 2021). Current book projects include ""Jane Austen, Abolitionist: The Loaded History of the Phrase 'Pride and Prejudice'"" (McFarland, 2024).

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