Shakespeare's Binding Language - Hardcover

Kerrigan, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198757581 ISBN 13: 9780198757580

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2016

Synopsis

This remarkable, innovative book explores the significance in Shakespeare's plays of oaths, vows, contracts, pledges and the other utterances and acts by which characters commit themselves to the truth of things past, present, and to come. In early modern England, such binding language was everywhere. Oaths of office, marriage vows, legal bonds, and casual, everyday profanity gave shape and texture to life. The proper use of such language, and the extent of its power to bind, was argued over by lawyers, religious writers, and satirists, and these debates inform literature and drama.

Shakespeare's Binding Language gives a freshly researched account of these contexts, but it is focused on the plays. What motives should we look for when characters asseverate or promise? How far is binding language self-persuasive or deceptive? When is it allowable to break a vow? How do oaths and promises structure an audience's expectations? Across the sweep of Shakespeare's career, from the early histories to the late romances, this book opens new perspectives on key dramatic moments and illuminates language and action. Each chapter gives an account of a play or group of plays, yet the study builds to a sustained investigation of some of the most important systems, institutions, and controversies in early modern England, and of the wiring of Shakespearean dramaturgy.

Scholarly but accessible, and offering startling insights, this is a major contribution to Shakespeare studies by one of the leading figures in the field.

About this title

About the Author

John Kerrigan was brought up in Liverpool. After studying at Oxford he went to a lectureship at Cambridge, where he is Professor of English 2000 and a Fellow of St John's College. He has published on many subjects, from classical drama through Renaissance literature to modern British and Irish poetry. Among his books are an edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint (1986), Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon (1996), and Archipelagic English: Literature, History, and Politics 1603-1707 (2008). He has lectured in many parts of the world, and writes for the TLS and the London Review of Books. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198757581
• ISBN 13: 9780198757580
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 636