"Hamlet" Contemporary Critical Essays (New Casebooks Series): 126 - Softcover

Coyle, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0333541286 ISBN 13: 9780333541289

Publisher: Palgrave, 1992

Synopsis

What are the differences between traditional readings of Hamlet and those produced by modern criticism? What sort of questions does structuralist or feminist criticism raise? What issues are foregrounded by contemporary critics and how do these challenge our understanding of the play? This new collection on Hamlet brings together three traditional essays on the play and sets them alongside nine pieces of modern criticism that reflect the way in which contemporary discussion of Shakespeare is now heavily indebted to the ideas of structuralism, feminism, deconstruction, Marxism and new historicism. Complete with Introduction and a guide to Further Reading, the volume offers students a clear account of how the exciting developments in modern literary criticism and theory have influenced the current debate about Hamlet.

About this title

Review:

Undoubtedly the most famous of all of Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet remains one of the most enduring but also enigmatic pieces of western literature. The story of Hamlet, the young Prince of Denmark, his tortured relationship with his mother, and his quest to avenge his father's murder at the hand of his brother Claudius has fascinated writers and audiences ever since it was written around 1600.

For many years interest focused on both Hamlet's inability to avenge his father's death, claiming that "the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought", and, according to none other than Freud, his oedipal fixation with his mother. However, more recently critics have turned their attention to Hamlet's bold theatrical self-reflexivity (most famously reflected in the performance of "The Mousetrap"), its fascination with issues of theology and Renaissance humanism, and its dense, complex poetic language. What is so remarkable about the play is the way in which it tends to uncannily reflect the concerns of different epochs. As a result, Hamlet has been at different moments defined as a romantic rebel, an angst-ridden existentialist, a paralysed intellectual and an ambivalent New Man. Whatever subsequent generations make of Hamlet, they are unlikely to exhaust the possibilities of this most extraordinary play. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

Praise for "William Shakespeare: Complete Works: " A feast of literary and historical information. "-"" --The Wall Street Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0333541286
• ISBN 13: 9780333541289
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 207