Product Description

This book is a unique collection of essays by founding figures in this movement to remake Shakespeare studies. Each essay challenges the Shakespeare myth and the assumptions underlying traditional modes of criticism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #434662 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Review
"The book is even more a necessity than it was when it was first published by Methuen in 1985. Nobody has improved (in my view) on the deconstructions herein or gone significantly past the post-structuralist approaches put to work here. This is more than a milestone in Shakespearian criticism; it is a direction indicator."
-"Chronique

From the Back Cover
When critical theory met literary studies in the 1970s and 80s, some of the most radical and exciting theoretical work took as its subject the long mythologized, quasi-sacred figure of Shakespeare. Alternative Shakespeares is a unique collection of essays by founding figures in this movement to remake Shakespeare studies.
Drawing upon revolutionary work in the semiotics of drama, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism and Marxism, each essay challenges the Shakespeare myth and the assumptions underlying traditional modes of criticism. Exploring such fundamental issues as text, meaning and subjectivity, the volume argues that there can be no unified subject 'Shakespeare' and that we must rather define and contest a series of alternative 'Shakespeares' according to our own perspectives.
A new afterword by Robert Weimann outlines the extraordinary impact of this volume upon academic Shakespeare studies. However, the Shakespeare myth continues to thrive not only in Stratford but in our schools, making these essays as relevant and as powerful as they were upon publication. With an author list that reads like a 'who's who' of modern Shakespeare studies, Alternative Shakespeares simply must be read.

About the Author
The Editor, John Drakakis, is Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling. Contributing authors include Francis Barker, Catherine Belsey, Jonathan Dollimore, John Drakakis, Keir Elam, Malcolm Evans, Terence Hawkes, Peter Hulme, James Kavanagh, Christopher Norris, Jacqueline Rose, Alessandro Serpieri, Alan Sinfield.

Customer Reviews

Impenetrable
It all depends what you're into. Personally I am one of those students of literature who've had it up to here with so-called literary theory.

Still, I thought this and its follow-up volume would provide me with an insight into the mind of the "enemy", so that the next time I was asked why I loathe literary theory I could point my finger in a precise direction and look like I knew what I was talking about.

Problem is, I didn't make it past the introduction. Words like "impenetrable" and "dull" and "hastily put-downable" sprung to mind, and I put it down hastily. Chances are they'll spring to yours if you care about the following concepts: "author", "intention", "personal identity/accountability" etc.

If, on the other hand, theoretical approaches to literature (marxist, freudian, feminist etc.) fascinate you in a way they fail to fascinate me, chances are this would be a good buy: the critics featured are all eminently important figures in the field of Shakespearean studies, and thus probably the best people to be reading.