Understanding King Lear: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents

Considered one of Shakespeare's most powerful dramas, King Lear, with its combined elements of political and domestic tragedy, is as interesting to today's readers as it was to Elizabethan audiences. While the play's intricate plot and timely themes can be challenging to students, studying the play in its historical contexts sheds a great deal of light on important dramatic elements and topical references. This casebook was prepared to help students understand the literary and historic issues in King Lear, as well as its contemporary applications. Readers are introduced to the work with a Dramatic Analysis focusing on genre, character archetypes, themes, and sources. Excerpts from actual historical and literary sources demonstrate how King Lear incorporates elements of fairy tale, legend, and history as it alludes to the political controversies of Shakespeare's day. The final chapter in the casebook helps readers appreciate the thematic relatedness of King Lear to contemporary issues by focusing on the treatment of the elderly in our own society.

Woodford (English, New Mexico Highlands University) compiles essays and excerpts from historical, contemporary, and literary sources to help students understand Shakespeare's play, the time in which it was written, and its continued relevance today. Selections include political tracts, legal documents, medical treatises, book and film reviews, and a personal account of life with Alzheimer's disease. Section-ending questions are included. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-By using documents and literature from Shakespeare's own time as well as from the present, Woodford illuminates the text of King Lear. The selections include Geoffrey of Monmouth's "The History of the Kings of Britain," "The True Chronicle History of King Leir and His Three Daughters," treatises on insanity from the Renaissance, speeches by King James I, sermons on marriage and family responsibility, various retellings of the Lear story, and current information about Alzheimer's and dementia. The volume works much like a textbook, with "Questions for Written and Oral Discussion" and suggested readings at the end of each chapter. While the few black-and-white photographs are unremarkable, the historical perspective is quite valuable. By understanding more about attitudes and conventions in Shakespeare's time as well as now, students are better able to interpret the play either as literature or as a stage production. The presentation is clear and orderly. Anyone interested in King Lear could learn much from this book, which is especially good for classroom study and as a source of information for reports. A first purchase.-Carol Durusau, Newton County Public Library, Covington, GA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

DONNA WOODFORD is Assistant Professor of English at New Mexico Highlands University.