Awards

• Joint winner for American Historical Association Wesley-Logan Prize 2010.
• Joint winner of American Historical Association Wesley-Logan Prize 2010

Overview

The Elizabethan history play was one of the most prevalent dramatic genres of the 1590s, and so was a major contribution to Elizabethan historical culture. The genre has been well served by critical studies that emphasize politics and ideology; however, there has been less interest in the way history is interrogated as an idea in these plays. Drawing in period-sensitive ways on the field of contemporary performance theory, this book looks at the Shakespearean history play from a fresh angle, by first analyzing the foundational work of the Queen's Men, the playing company that invented the popular history play. Through innovative readings of their plays including The Famous Victories of Henry V before moving on to Shakespeare's 1 Henry VI, Richard III, and Henry V, this book investigates how the Queen's Men's self-consciousness about performance helped to shape Shakespeare's dramatic and historical imagination.

Full Product Details

9781107629066

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Reviews

'One of the refreshing qualities of Walsh's book is his willingness to write about performance. This is something often lacking in literary criticism and, although it is becoming more widespread, there are few who manage to integrate it with quite as much verve as Walsh does.' Around the Globe

'One of the refreshing qualities of Walsh's book is his willingness to write about performance. This is something often lacking in literary criticism and, although it is becoming more widespread, there are few who manage to integrate it with quite as much verve as Walsh does.' Around the Globe ...Walsh persistently sticks to the question about the idea of 'history', and introduces bold and thrilling assumptions through close analysis and careful reading of the lines....This book stimulatingly reassures us that paying enough attention to the early modern theatrical conditions is important and effective for studying Shakespeare's history plays. -Yukiko Mori Brian Walsh's book is a welcome addition to recent attempts to account for the development of Shakespeare's performance of history, as part of an ongoing effort by contemporary scholars to recover the theoretical influences that shaped the tetralogies. -James P. Bednarz, Modern Philology Book Reviews

Author Information

Brian Walsh is Assistant Professor in the English Department at Yale University.

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