Shakespeare's Political Imagination

"Shakespeare's Political Imagination argues that to better understand Shakespeare's plays it is essential to look at the conceptions of the political societies available to him and his audiences. This book offers us new readings of neglected critical moments in key plays, such as Malcolm's final speech in Macbeth or the Duke's inaction in The Merchant of Venice, by investigating early modern audiences' understanding and awareness of the political cultures at work in Shakespeare's realms. Divided into three parts, this book explores Shakespeare's historicist use of ancient Rome in Julius Caesar and Coriolanus ; medieval Britain and Scotland in King John and Macbeth , and Renaissance Europe through Venice and Vienna in The Merchant of Venice , Othello and Measure for Measure . Philip Goldfarb Styrt argues that settings are a powerful component in Shakespeare's worlds that not only function as physical locations, but are a mechanism through which he communicates the political and social orders of the plays. Reading the plays in light of these social and political contexts reveals Shakespeare's understanding of competing cultural narratives and early modern audiences' awareness of how other cultures differed from their own. These fresh insights encourage us to move away from overly localized or universalized readings of the plays and re-discover hidden moments and meanings that would have resonated with early modern audiences."--