Beyond a common joy
Subtitle: an introduction to Shakespearean comedy
By: Paul A. Olson.
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Number of pages: 347
ISBN-13: 9780803215740
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, -- 1564-1616 -- Comedies; Shakespeare, William, -- 1564-1616 -- Humor; Comedy
Description: "Like the best tragic or epic writers, Shakespeare in his comedies goes beyond private and domestic matters in order to draw on the whole of the commonwealth. He examines how a ruler's or a court's community at the household and local levels shapes the politics of empire - existing or nascent empires such as England, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Venice, and the Ottoman Empire or part empires such as Rome and Athens - where all their suffering and silliness play into how they govern. In Olson's work we also see how Shakespeare's appropriation of his age's ideas about classical myth and biblical scriptures bring to his comic action a sort of sacral profundity in keeping with notions of poetry as "inspired" and comic endings as more than merely happy but as, in fact, uncommonly joyful."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: On historical understandings of Shakespeare's works; title: Shakespeare and the invention of grand comic form; title: Shakespearean comedic myths; title: Biblical story and festival enter Shakespearean comedy; title: Empire and conquest in the comedies; title: Measure for measure as form, myth, and scripture.