Awards

• Winner of Joint winner of the 2014 Shakespeare's Globe Book Award.

Overview

Why does Catholicism have such an imaginative hold on Shakespearean drama, even though the on-going Reformation outlawed its practice? Shakespeare's Unreformed Fictions contends that the answers to this question are theatrical rather than strictly theological. Avoiding biographical speculation, this book concentrates on dramatic impact, and thoroughly integrates new literary analysis with fresh historical research. In exploring the dramaturgical variety of the 'Catholic' content of Shakespeare's plays, Gillian Woods argues that habits, idioms, images, and ideas lose their denominational clarity when translated into dramatic fiction: they are awkwardly 'unreformed' rather than doctrinally Catholic. Providing nuanced readings of generically diverse plays, this book emphasises the creative function of such unreformed material, which Shakespeare uses to pose questions about the relationship between self and other. A wealth of contextual evidence is studied, including catechisms, homilies, religious polemics, news quartos, and non-Shakespearean drama, to highlight how early modern Catholicism variously provoked nostalgia, faith, conversion, humour, fear, and hatred. This book argues that Shakespeare exploits these contradictory attitudes to frame ethical problems, creating fictional plays that consciously engage audiences in the difficult leaps of faith required by both theatre and theology. By recognizing the playfulness of Shakespeare's unreformed fictions, this book offers a different perspective on the interactions between post-Reformation religion and the theatre, and an alternative angle on Shakespeare's interrogation of the scope of dramatic fiction.

Full Product Details

9780199671267

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Reviews

Woods's erudite study of a range of Shakespeares plays represents a necessary and important interjection into those apparently overworked fields of study: Shakespeare and religion, and Shakespeare and Catholicism. ... It is to be hoped thatWoodss challenging and authoritative analysis will lead to a similar re-examination of other texts from the early modern period, a return to literary criticism as the primary method of analysis, and less dogma when addressing the question of religion and early modern drama. Paul Quinn, English

Clear vision, acute intelligence, and literary sensitivity. Helen Hackett, Times Literary Supplement Woods's erudite study of a range of Shakespeares plays represents a necessary and important interjection into those apparently overworked fields of study: Shakespeare and religion, and Shakespeare and Catholicism ... It is to be hoped that Woods's challenging and authoritative analysis will lead to a similar re-examination of other texts from the early modern period, a return to literary criticism as the primary method of analysis, and less dogma when addressing the question of religion and early modern drama. Paul Quinn, English [Woods'] thoughtful readings of Shakespeare are well supported by copious annotations from tracts and sermons as well as by parallel readings from a range of dramatic works from the period. Julia Reinhard Lupton, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

Author Information

Gillian Woods is a Lecturer in Renaissance Theatre and Drama at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has published on a range of early modern drama, including works by Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Ford and Anthony Munday.

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