Through expert guidance on understanding, interpreting, and writing about Shakespeare’s language, this book makes The Winter’s Tale accessible and exciting for students. It demonstrates that careful attention to Shakespeare’s complex dramatic language can clarify the structure and concerns of the play, as well as provide deep and satisfying engagement with the social, political and ethical questions Shakespeare raises. Each chapter features a 'Writing Matters' section designed to connect analysis of Shakespeare’s language to students’ development of their own writing strategies. The book examines topics in the play such as tragicomic genre; women’s assertion of social and political agency; obedience and resistance to rulers; the virtues and risks of following festivity, and disputes over the proper forms of religious devotion.
Series editor’s preface Preface Introduction - the language of genre What is a winter’s tale? The Winter’s Tale and comedy The Winter’s Tale and tragedy Sources, intertexts, allusions Writing matters 1 Engaging the language of the text(s) The texts of The Winter’s Tale Listening to the language of the opening scene Editorial interventions: Spelling, capitalization, punctuation Editorial additions: Stage directions Fallen language in The Winter’s Tale Writing Matters 2 Language: Style and form Prose, verse and rhyme Analyzing Shakespeare’s blank verse Soliloquies Hermione’s oration Reporting Writing matters 3 Language and history Women’s speech and authority Obedience and resistance Festive pleasures, festive dangers Faith, magic and art: The statue scene Writing matters 4 Writing and language skills Choosing an essay topic I Choosing an essay topic II: Creative approaches Writing the essay Bibliography Index
Mario DiGangi is Professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. He is the author of The Homoerotics of Early Modern Drama (1997) and Sexual Types: Embodiment, Agency, and Dramatic Character from Shakespeare to Shirley (2011) and has edited three plays of Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet.
