Full Product Details
Author: Professor Gary Watt (University of Warwick, UK)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: The Arden Shakespeare
Dimensions:
Width: 12.90cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 19.80cm
Weight: 0.426kg
ISBN: 9781474217859
ISBN 10: 1474217850
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 28 July 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
A fiercely intelligent but nimbly written book that maintains a spirit of intellectual generosity throughout. * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 * Shakespeare's plays take shape in a space between the medieval and modern worlds, a space in which a divinely sanctioned hierarchy was fast losing ground to an order defined by individual will and contract. Watt (Univ. of Warwick, UK) focuses specifically on the legal aspects of this transformation, providing scholarly studies of Richard II, King John, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet. Comparing the theater to a courtroom in which the audience is called on to render a verdict, Watt explores the various ways in which performance is a kind of will or testament (a quote from Timon of Athens that serves as the title of chapter 1). Watt explores both the specific use of legal language-especially in plays such as As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice-and the broader way in which will (or the failure of will) drives the plot and characters in plays such as Richard II and Hamlet. Throughout, Watt usefully engages current literary scholarship. Although Watt's prose is accessible, the rather narrow perspective of the book limits its audience to scholars. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *
A fiercely intelligent but nimbly written book that maintains a spirit of intellectual generosity throughout. * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *
Shakespeare's Acts of Will offers the opportunity for a reflection on the word will, and at the same time wittily establishes the field of enquiry of this research. ... Extremely fascinating is Watt's analysis of Julius Caesar, where he stresses the commoners' interest in financial resources. Polemos
Author Information
Gary Watt is Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, UK. One of the founding editors of the journal Law and Humanities, he is a National Teaching Fellow and regularly delivers workshops on rhetoric for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In addition to texts on the law of trusts, he has written monographs on law and literature, law and dress, and has co-edited the collection Shakespeare and the Law.
