Title: Shakespeare and religion : early modern and postmodern perspectives /
Authors: Jackson, Kenneth S., 1965-; Marotti, Arthur F., 1940-
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Shakespeare, William.; Shakespeare, William, Religion.; Religion (Motiv); Christianity and literature England History; Christianity and literature England History; Drama Religious aspects Christianity.; Religion in literature.
Abstract: The topic of Shakespeare and religion is a perennial one, and the recent “turn to religion” in historical and literary scholarship has pushed it to the fore. Besides speculating about Shakespeare's personal religious beliefs and allegiance, historians and literary critics writing about early modern England are reexamining the religious dynamics of the period and emphasizing the ways in which old, new, and emerging religious cultures coexisted in conflicting hybrid and unstable forms. The contributors to Shakespeare and Religion: Early Modern and Postmodern Perspectives deal with the topic of Shakespeare and religion from two points of view not always considered complementary--that of the historical approach to Shakespearean drama in its early modern contexts, and that of postmodern philosophy and theology. The first illuminates the culture-specific features of the plays, whereas the second emphasizes their transhistorical qualities and the relevance of the deep religious and philosophical issues surfacing in early modern culture to contemporary religious struggles and awareness. --
Contents: Jesuit shadows in Shakespeare: William Weston and Henry Garnet / Robert Miola -- Decorum and the politics of ceremony in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus / Gary Kuchar -- Miracles and mysteries in the Comedy of errors / Richard McCoy -- Acknowledgment and confession in Cymbeline / Sarah Beckwith -- Patience of Lear / Hannibal Hamlin -- Wizards of Uz: Shakespeare and the Book of Job / Julia Reinhard Lupton -- Empson's dog: emptiness and divinity in Timon of Athens / Lisa Mybun Freinkel -- Passing of Falstaff: rethinking history, refiguring the sacred / Joan Pong Linton -- Richard II, Abraham, and the Abrahamic / Ken Jackson -- Penitential ethics in Measure for measure / James A. Knapp.