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Shakespearean Subversions: The Trickster and the Play-Text

Richard Hillman

5/5 ( ratings)

This book traces manifestations of trickery and subversion across the Shakespearean canon in such a way as to bring together several diverse strands of critical thought. By isolating a principle of subversiveness that cuts across the standard categories, Richard Hillman shows a relation amongst otherwise disparate aspects of the plays and delineates broad patterns of development. In Shakespearean Subversions discussion of such obviously subversive character-types as the Clown, the Fool and the Machiavellian villain is incorporated into a broader concern with disruptive energy, not as a thematic motif, but as a generative influence on textual production. Hillman suggests that this influence may be exercised, paradoxically, through the counter-claims of social order. The book situates this central idea in relation to a number of theoretical positions, including New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, and Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque. The primary conceptual anchor is supplied by recent anthropological interpretations of the folklore figure known as the Trickster. The subsequent plan of the book is wide-ranging: there is discussion of almost every play, with some unusual associations across boundaries of genre and a number of radically unconventional specific interpretations. Shakespearean Subversions will appeal to specialists and to any reader with a serious interest in Shakespearean drama.

Language: English

Pages: 284

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Routledge

Release: May 21, 1992

ISBN: 0415070201

ISBN 13: 9780415070201

Shakespearean Subversions: The Trickster and the Play-Text

Richard Hillman

5/5 ( ratings)

This book traces manifestations of trickery and subversion across the Shakespearean canon in such a way as to bring together several diverse strands of critical thought. By isolating a principle of subversiveness that cuts across the standard categories, Richard Hillman shows a relation amongst otherwise disparate aspects of the plays and delineates broad patterns of development. In Shakespearean Subversions discussion of such obviously subversive character-types as the Clown, the Fool and the Machiavellian villain is incorporated into a broader concern with disruptive energy, not as a thematic motif, but as a generative influence on textual production. Hillman suggests that this influence may be exercised, paradoxically, through the counter-claims of social order. The book situates this central idea in relation to a number of theoretical positions, including New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, and Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque. The primary conceptual anchor is supplied by recent anthropological interpretations of the folklore figure known as the Trickster. The subsequent plan of the book is wide-ranging: there is discussion of almost every play, with some unusual associations across boundaries of genre and a number of radically unconventional specific interpretations. Shakespearean Subversions will appeal to specialists and to any reader with a serious interest in Shakespearean drama.

Language: English

Pages: 284

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Routledge

Release: May 21, 1992

ISBN: 0415070201

ISBN 13: 9780415070201

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