Shakespeare and philosophy : lust, love, and law /
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This book is an interdisciplinary work that weaves literary interpretation, legal theory, and philosophical doctrine about sex and love into a coherent mosaic in the context of two of Shakespeare's plays: The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure . In the process, the work advances literary interpretations of the plays including character studies of some of the main protagonists. The aim is partly theoretical but mostly practical: to demonstrate what we can learn about living a robustly meaningful and significant human life by taking Shakespeare's work seriously from contemporary philosophical and legal vantage points. Shakespeare does not reveal a tightly defined moral system that he is trying to urge upon his audience. Instead, Shakespeare challenges his audience to struggle with moral complexity as they confront conflicting elements surrounding legal and moral issues presented in his work and within the souls of his characters. His issues and their conflicts are also ours. Much of Shakespeare's work consists of raising weighty questions inextricably connected to the human condition and inviting his audience to ponder possible answers. The philosophical lessons about living our lives meaningfully and significantly that we can derive from Shakespeare are simple yet powerful.
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1 online resource (xiii, 227 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401208727 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Politics otherwise : Shakespeare as social and political critique /
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The book is comprised of essays that utilize Shakespeare as a productive window into topics of contemporary social and political relevance. Its interdisciplinary qualities make the book relevant for students of political studies, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, and history.
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1 online resource (xiv, 180 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401207461 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The unheard prayer : religious toleration in Shakespeare's drama /
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Titus shoots his arrows bearing petitions for justice to the gods; Claudius asks 'what form of prayer can serve my turn?'; Lear wishes he could crack the vault of heaven with his prayers. Again and again, Shakespeare dramatises the scenario of the unheard prayer, in which the one who prays does so full well in the knowledge that no one is listening, interested, or even there at all. The scenario is keyed to the anxieties that surrounded the act of praying itself, so full as it was with controversy, the centrepiece of sectarian dispute over what was good and bad religion. This study reads the unheard prayer scenario as itself an appeal for a vision of tolerance, unobtainable perhaps, but nevertheless desired and imagined.
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1 online resource (xxxi, 187 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004230064 :
1877-3192 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.