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Overview
This 1986 book tackles the large and difficult but relatively unexplored topic of how Shakespeare viewed his own craft and creativity. What was his sense of prosody, imagery, poetic structure, and invention? Did he have specific views on acting, the purposes of drama, the unities and audience participation? Was there a conscious theoretical basis to his creation of dramatic personae? What did he think of artistic in relation to natural creativity? Shakespeare's Poetics is a full-length study of this subject. The author charts all its available aspects, and concludes that Shakespeare's idea of poetics occupied a place among contemporary theories which was surprisingly advanced, differing widely from mainstream Renaissance criticism and falling in line with the foremost thinking of the age.
Synopsis
This book tackles the large and difficult but relatively unexplored topic of how Shakespeare viewed his own craft and creativity. What was his sense of prosody, imagery, poetic structure, and invention? Did he have specific views on acting, the purposes of drama, the unities and audience participation? Was there a conscious theoretical basis to his creation of dramatic personae? What did he think of artistic in relation to natural creativity? Shakespeare's Poetics is the first full-length study of this subject. The author charts all its available aspects, and concludes that Shakespeare's idea of poetics occupied a place among contemporary theories which was surprisingly advanced, differing widely from mainstream Renaissance criticism and falling in line with the foremost thinking of the age.
Library Journal
Beginning by testing Jonson's well-known theory that Shakespeare ``wanted Arte,'' Faas explores the playwright's own sense of his craft. In the absence of a critical manifesto, and given his subject's apparent indifference to theory, Faas scans the plays for evidence of Shakespeare's attitude toward such matters as his audience, his linguistic medium, his own creativity, and the ultimate significance of his art of artifice. The author places Shakespeare's thought in the context of contemporary philosophy and criticism, especially that of Bacon and Montaigne. His analysis will interest both Shakespeare scholars and students of literary creativity. Margaret Hallissy, English Dept., Long Island Univ., C.W. Post Ctr., Greenvale, N.Y.