Eagleton, Terry

William Shakespeare (Rereading literature)

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ISBN 13:
9780631145547
author:
Eagleton, Terry
format:
Paperback
publisher:
John Wiley & Sons
language:
English
Publication Year:
1986
Pages:
128
Genre:
Literature: History & Criticism
Condition:
New
Availability:
Item usually sent within 10 working days
£40.84

Description

This bold reinterpretation of Shakespeare's major plays explores the playwright's use of Marxist, feminist and semiotic ideas to illuminate persistent problems in his drama. Eagleton examines how Shakespeare portrays a tension between words and things, body and language, which is also reflected in law, sexuality and Nature.

The book argues that for Shakespeare, language and desire are seen as a kind of 'surplus' over the body, stable roles and fixed human nature. However, this surplus is viewed with ambivalence by the plays, which both celebrate its creative power and fear its anarchic force. Eagleton convincingly shows how these ambiguities reveal a deeper ideological struggle between feudalist traditionalism and emerging bourgeois individualism.

Through his detailed readings, Eagleton sheds new light on the issues present in Shakespeare's drama that have previously remained obscure. This book offers a fresh understanding of the playwright's work in the light of contemporary theories of language, sexuality and society.

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