True Rites and Maimed Rites - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252062434 ISBN 13: 9780252062438

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1992

Synopsis

This book brings together a wide variety of critical perspectives that illuminate the role of ritual in Elizabethan and Jacobean culture and its relationship to Shakespearean drama. It includes a useful introduction that provides an overview of the current theoretical attitudes toward ritual criticism and situates these essays in the traditions to which they are most closely related, in particular those focusing on fertility rites, scapegoating, carnival, rites of passage, and political ceremonies. Part 1, "Rites of Passage," groups chapters on birth and death rituals, riddling, and charivari. Part 2, "Rites of Rule," deals with ritual means of securing and conferring grace and with ritualistic connections between the monarch and the realm. This is an eclectic and up-to-the-minute critical response to the notion of ritual broadly defined and is a solid addition to Shakespeare studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252062434
• ISBN 13: 9780252062438
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 303
• Editor: Woodbridge Professor Linda, Berry Edward