Shakespeare and social theory: the play of great ideas

Table of Contents
Part 1. Shakespeare’s World 1. To See and Not to See: Hamlet’s Undiscovered Country 2. Shakespeare, In Theory 3. Revolutions Part 2. Four Plays 4. The Long Way Home: The Winter’s Tale and the Triumph of Time 5. And the Flesh Was Made Word: Romeo and Juliet in the Kingdom of Cratylus 6. Just For Play: Unmasquing A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7. The Body Politic, The Body Poetic: Julius Caesar and Legacy of "The King’s Two Bodies" Part 3. Shakespeare’s Craft 8. Just Nothing: How King Lear Means 9. Shakespeare and Theory in Perspective

This book provides a bridge between Shakespeare studies and classical social theory, opening up readings of Shakespeare to a new audience outside of literary studies and the humanities. Shakespeare has long been known as a “great thinker” and this book reads his plays through the lens of an anthropologist, revealing new connections between Shakespeare’s plays and the lives we now lead.

Close readings of a selection of frequently studied plays—Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, and King Lear—engage with the texts in detail while connecting them with some of the biggest questions we all ask ourselves, about love, friendship, ritual, language, human interactions, and the world around us. The plays are examined through various social theories including performance theory, cognitive theory, semiotics, exchange theory, and structuralism. The book concludes with a consideration of how “the new astronomy” of his day and developments in optics changed the very idea of “perspective,” and shaped Shakespeare’s approach to embedding social theory in his dramatic texts.

This accessible and engaging book will appeal to those approaching Shakespeare from outside literary studies but will also be valuable to literature students approaching Shakespeare for the first time, or looking for a new angle on the plays.