Shakespeare's Domestic Tragedies
Violence in the Early Modern Home
£33.99
- Author: Emma Whipday, Newcastle University
- Date Published: October 2020
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781108463300
£
33.99
Paperback
Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available on inspection
-
Domestic tragedy was an innovative genre, suggesting that the lives and sufferings of ordinary people were worthy of the dramatic scope of tragedy. In this compelling study, Whipday revises the narrative of Shakespeare's plays to show how this genre, together with neglected pamphlets, ballads, and other forms of 'cheap print' about domestic violence, informed some of Shakespeare's greatest works. Providing a significant reappraisal of Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth, the book argues that domesticity is central to these plays: they stage how societal and familial pressures shape individual agency; how the integrity of the house is associated with the body of the housewife; and how household transgressions render the home permeable. Whipday demonstrates that Shakespeare not only appropriated constructions of the domestic from domestic tragedies, but that he transformed the genre, using heightened language, foreign settings, and elite spheres to stage familiar domestic worlds.
Read more- Proposes a new generic category for Shakespeare's tragedies
- Explores the significance of domestic violence in early modern culture and how it informs modern ideas of the issue
- Offers readings of less well known domestic tragedies alongside more famous works
Awards
- Co-Winner, 2020 Shakespeare's Globe Book Award
Reviews & endorsements
'This is an elegantly written, important book: it firmly situates Shakespeare's works in the wider culture of his time and makes particularly enlightening links between cheap print, domestic drama and canonical tragedy.' Tom Macfaul, University of Oxford
See more reviews'Whipday convincingly demonstrates that Shakespeare's tragedies are very much in dialogue with common cultural conceptions of the English home.' Laura Kolb, The Times Literary Supplement
'… Whipday's book presents fresh and convincing new readings that leave the reader with not simply a greater understanding of Shakespeare, but of domestic tragedy and popular crime literature … extremely impressive work of scholarship that stands as a vital addition to the study of domestic tragedy …' Lucy J.S. Clarke, Early Theatre
'Shakespeare's Domestic Tragedies provides a fresh perspective on the centrality of household violence to early modern debates about the domestic sphere, as acts of violence put pressure on the ideologies that sustained the moral, political, and religious integrity of the home.' Katherine Gillen, Shakespeare Quarterly
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Date Published: October 2020
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781108463300
- length: 274 pages
- dimensions: 228 x 152 x 14 mm
- weight: 0.408kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction: Shakespeare's domestic tragedies
1. Home: contesting domestic order in The Taming of the Shrew
2. Household: performing domestic relationships in Hamlet
3. House: staging domestic space in Othello
4. Neighbourhood: crossing domestic boundaries in Macbeth
Afterword – outside domestic tragedy in King Lear.
Related Books
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×