English revenge drama : money, resistance, equality /

English revenge drama : money, resistance, equality /

Vengeance permeates English Renaissance drama - for example, it crops up in all but two of Shakespeare's plays. This book explores why a supposedly forgiving Christian culture should have relished such bloodthirsty, vengeful plays. A clue lies in the plays' passion for fairness, a preoccup...

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Woodbridge, Linda, 1945-
Imprint:Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Description:1 online resource (332 pages)
Language:English
Subject:Englisch, ...
English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism.
Revenge in literature.
DRAMA -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan.
Revenge in literature.
Drama
Rache
RachetragoĢˆdie
Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11826658
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780511909870
051190987X
9780511907074
0511907079
9780511781469
0511781466
9781107463271
1107463270
9780521884594
0521884594
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-310) and index.
Print version record.
Summary:Vengeance permeates English Renaissance drama - for example, it crops up in all but two of Shakespeare's plays. This book explores why a supposedly forgiving Christian culture should have relished such bloodthirsty, vengeful plays. A clue lies in the plays' passion for fairness, a preoccupation suggesting widespread resentment of systemic unfairness - legal, economic, political and social. Revengers' precise equivalents - the father of two beheaded sons obliges his enemy to eat her two sons' heads - are vigilante versions of Elizabethan law, where penalties suit the crimes: thieves' hands were cut off, scolds' tongues bridled. The revengers' language of 'paying' hints at the operation of revenge in the service of economic redress. Revenge makes contact with resistance theory, justifying overthrow of tyrants, and some revengers challenge the fundamental inequity of social class. Woodbridge demonstrates how, for all their sensationalism, their macabre comedy and outlandish gore, Renaissance revenge plays do some serious cultural work.
Other form:Print version: Woodbridge, Linda, 1945- English revenge drama. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010 9780521884594
Standard no.:9786612778230

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