Overview

"These essays make a contribution to the re-thinking of ""English"" now under way, and to the reconsideration of Shakespeare's role within it. Focusing on the emergence of the ""new historicism"" they subject many of its most challenging claims to rigorous analysis, distinguish sharply between its American and British versions, and assess the causes and consequences of its politicization of literacy studies. The theoretical as well as political issues at stake in current debates are brought out and the uses served by the canonical texts at their centre re-examined within a broad cultural and historial perspective. This overview of contemporary critical theory and practice yields fresh readings of a number of classic texts - including ""Hamlet"", ""The Winter's Tale"", ""The Tempest"", Shakespeare's ""Sonnets"", More's ""Utopia"", Donne's poetry and Conrad's ""Heart of Darkness"" - as well as an understanding of the complex and changing functions of the canon itself. Professor Felperin is also the author of ""Beyond Deconstruction: the Uses and Abuses of Literary Theory""."

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9780198122449

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