Introduction: Learning from Shakespeare, poet of Western civilization -- Shakespeare on love (and marriage) -- Juliet's nominalism and the failure of love -- The racial "other" in The merchant of Venice and Othello -- Shakespeare's history plays and the Erasmian Christian prince -- Freedom and tyranny in Julius Caesar and Hamlet -- "Light thickens" : freedom and tyranny in Macbeth -- Hope and despair in King Lear : the gospel and the crisis of natural law -- The tempest in the academic teapot.
Summary:
"The author argues his viewpoint--that Shakespeare's drama achieves not a break with Western literary and cultural tradition that has preceded him but instead is its consummate expression; the author demonstrates the aesthetic and moral validity of Shakespearean drama as well as its general validation of the principles of Western civilization"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.