Constructing Christopher Marlowe
Constructing Christopher Marlowe
£42.00
GBPFrom Greene's 'mad and scoffing poet' to Greenblatt's flaunter of his 'society's cherished orthodoxies', Marlowe's putative personality has licensed and informed disparate and often conflicting readings of his writings. This book illustrates and challenges the ways in which the writer has been constructed by the prejudices of readers, critics and directors. Taking nothing on trust, the contributors to this volume review what is known about Marlowe's life, the publication of his plays, conditions in Elizabethan theatre, and his reputation among his contemporaries and late twentieth-century critics. Their essays challenge some preconceptions about Marlowe by tackling major aspects of his dramaturgy, his use of magic, the homoeroticism of the plays, his female characters, twentieth-century performances of his plays, and the radical nature of his narrative poem Hero and Leander. Together they contribute to the critical effort to construct a fuller understanding of the poet and playwright.
- Re-examines the evidence about Marlowe's life and works, showing how little is known for certain
- Deconstructs critical preconceptions about Marlowe, including the agenda of recent 'New Historicist' criticism
- Attention to topics of current interest: homoeroticism, theatrical interpretations of the plays, female characters
Product details
November 2006Paperback
9780521030519
248 pages
228 × 152 × 15 mm
0.382kg
5 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of contributors
- Editors' note
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction J. T. Parnell
- 1. Marlowe: facts and fictions J. A. Downie
- 2. Marlowe and the Rose Julian M. C. Bowsher
- 3. Marlowe and the editors Richard Proudfoot
- 4. Marlowe and the metaphysics of magicians Gareth Roberts
- 5. Marlowe's 'theatre of cruelty' Janet Clare
- 6. Marlowe onstage: the deaths of the author Lois Potter
- 7. A bit of ruff: criticism, fantasy, Marlowe Simon Shepherd
- 8. 'Writ in blood': Marlowe and the new historicists Richard Wilson
- 9. Hero and Leander: the arbitrariness of desire Claude J. Summers
- 10. Gender and voice in Hero and Leander Georgia E. Brown
- 11. Marlowe's politic women Joanna Gibbs
- 12. Edward II, Derek Jarman, and the state of English Lawrence Normand
- Notes
- Select bibliography of works cited
- Index.
