A Companion to Shakespeare's Works, Volume II: The Histories (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture)

This four-volume Companion to Shakespeare's Works, compiled as a single entity, offers a uniquely comprehensive snapshot of current Shakespeare criticism. Brings together new essays from a mixture of younger and more established scholars from around the world - Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Examines each of Shakespeare's plays and major poems, using all the resources of contemporary criticism, from performance studies to feminist, historicist, and textual analysis. Volumes are organized in relation to generic categories: namely the histories, the tragedies, the romantic comedies, and the late plays, problem plays and poems. Each volume contains individual essays on all texts in the relevant category, as well as more general essays looking at critical issues and approaches more widely relevant to the genre. Offers a provocative roadmap to Shakespeare studies at the dawning of the twenty-first century. This companion to Shakespeare's histories contains original essays on every history play from Henry VI to Henry V as well as fourteen additional articles on such topics as censorship in Shakespeare's histories, the relation of Shakespeare's plays to other dramatic histories of the period, Shakespeare's histories on film, the homoerotics of Shakespeare's history plays, and nation formation in Shakespeare's histories. Notes on Contributors......Page 7 Introduction......Page 11 1 The Writing of History in Shakespeare’s England......Page 14 2 Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists of History......Page 36 3 Censorship and the Problems with History in Shakespeare’s England......Page 58 4 Nation Formation and the English History Plays......Page 80 5 The Irish Text and Subtext of Shakespeare’s English Histories......Page 104 6 Theories of Kingship in Shakespeare’s England......Page 135 7 “To beguile the time, look like the time”: Contemporary Film Versions of Shakespeare’s Histories......Page 156 8 The Elizabethan History Play: A True Genre?......Page 180 9 Damned Commotion: Riot and Rebellion in Shakespeare’s Histories......Page 204 10 Manliness Before Individualism: Masculinity, Effeminacy, and Homoerotics in Shakespeare’s History Plays......Page 230 11 French Marriages and the Protestant Nation in Shakespeare’s History Plays......Page 256 12 The First Tetralogy in Performance......Page 273 13 The Second Tetralogy: Performance as Interpretation......Page 297 14 1 Henry VI......Page 318 15 Suffolk and the Pirates: Disordered Relations in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI......Page 335 16 Vexed Relations: Family, State, and the Uses of Women in 3 Henry VI......Page 354 17 “The power of hope?” An Early Modern Reader of Richard III......Page 371 18 King John......Page 389 19 The King’s Melting Body: Richard II......Page 405 20 1 Henry IV......Page 422 21 Henry IV, Part 2: A Critical History......Page 442 Index......Page 478 Contains Original Essays On Every Shakespearean Tragedy From Titus Andronicus To Coriolanus. Includes Thirteen Additional Essays On Such Topics As Shakespeare's Roman Tragedies, Shakespeare's Tragedies On Film, Shakespeare's Tragedies Of Love, Hamlet In Performance, And Tragic Emotion In Shakespeare. V. 1. The Tragedies -- V. 2. The Histories -- V. 3. The Comedies -- V. 4. Poems, Problem Comedies, Late Plays. Edited By Richard Dutton And Jean E. Howard. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. This Companion to Shakespeare's histories contains original essays on every history play from Henry VI to Henry V, as well as fourteen additional essays on such topics as censorship in Shakespeare's histories, the relation of Shakespeare's plays to other dramatic histories of the period, Shakespeare's histories on film, the homoerotics of Shakespeare's history plays, and nation formation in Shakespeare's histories. This text on Shakespeare's histories contains essays on every history play, as well as 14 additional articles on such topics as censorship in Shakespeare's histories, the relation of Shakespeare's plays to other dramatic histories of the period and Shakespeare's histories on film More than seventy historical dramas were written in England between the middle of the sixteenth century and the Revolution, the greater number of them seeing the light of day during the closing decade and a half of Elizabeth's reign. The four Companions to Shakespeare's Works (Tragedies; Histories; Comedies; Poems, Problem Comedies, Late Plays) were compiled as a single entity designed to offer a uniquely comprehensive snapshot of current Shakespeare criticism.