English Drama - 16th-17th Century - Elizabethan & Jacobean Eras - Shakespeare - Literary Criticism
Available on Bookshop
Write a review
Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
Re-situating Shakespeare historically as an early modern professional, Patrick Cheney views him not simply as a man of the theatre, but also as an author with a literary career. Cheney argues that Shakespeare's genius for disappearing into 'character' within the collaborative work of the theatre counters Elizabethan England's dominant model of authorship. Rather than present himself as a national or laureate poet, as Edmund Spenser does, Shakespeare conceals his authorship through dramaturgy, rendering his artistic techniques and literary ambitions opaque. Accordingly, recent scholars have attended more to his innovative theatricality or his indifference to textuality than to his contribution to modern English authorship. By tracking Shakespeare's 'counter-laureate authorship', Cheney builds upon his previous study on Shakespeare and literary authorship, and demonstrates the presence throughout the plays of sustained intertextual fictions about the twin media of printed poetry and theatrical performance. In challenging Spenser as England's National Poet, Shakespeare reinvents English authorship as a key part of his legacy.Book Details
Published
February 16, 2012
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Pages
324
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781107404595