Unediting the Renaissance: Shakespeare, Marlowe and Milton (Politics in Germany) - Softcover

Marcus, Leah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415100534 ISBN 13: 9780415100533

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

Unediting the Renaissance is a path-breaking and timely look at the issues of the textual editing of Renaissance works. Both erudite and accessible, it will be a fascinating and provocative read for any Renaissance student or scholar.

Leah Marcus argues that 'bad' versions of Renaissance texts such as Shakespeare's First Folio should not be viewed as mutilated copies of originals, but rather reputable alternatives encoding differences in ideology, cultural meaning and other elements of performance. Marcus focuses on key Renaissance works- Dr Faustus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet and poems by Milton, Donne and Herrick - to re-exmaine how editorial intervention shapes the texts which are widely accepted as 'definitive'.

About this title

Review

""Unediting the Renaissance includes both good arguments and provocative hypotheses in its efforts to explore the materiality of early modern texts." -Renaissance and Reformation "[Marcus] presents cogent and compelling discussions of individual works to support her arguments, and those discussions are often new and exciting. Within each chapter there is much to engage readers... even longtime students... will appreciate the strikingly original elements in her discussions... That "Unediting the Renaissance provokes questions attests to its scope and its importance... it is [an] inspiring work for textual critics, largely because it can convey the excitement of textual research to a broader audience." -"Text

Synopsis

Many readers and students do not recognise the extent to which modern standard editions of Shakespeare, Milton, Marlowe and other Renaissance authors have been filtered through eighteenth century and Victorian sensibilities. In Unediting the Renaissance Leah Marcus reveals the vast array of possibilities opened up by 'unediting' these texts. With carefully researched scholarship and lively, elegantly argued rhetoric, Marcus show how much the texts of early modern authors have altered and rigidified over time. She also demonstrates how modern interpretations and performances of their work can be injected with new energy by a recognition of the possiblities closed off by modern standard editions. A lively critique of current theoretical practices, Unediting the Renaissance is a provocative work which will initiate much debate about what makes a text 'definitive'.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0415100534
• ISBN 13: 9780415100533
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280