How early modern theatrical practice helped construct the category of “pagan” as a tool of European self-definition and colonial ambitionIn Making Pagans, John Kuhn argues that drama played a powerful role in the articulation of religious difference in the seventeenth century. Tracing connections between the history of stagecraft and ethnological disciplines such as ethnography, antiquarianism, and early comparative religious writing, Kuhn shows how early ...

How early modern theatrical practice helped construct the category of “pagan” as a tool of European self-definition and colonial ambitionIn Making Pagans, John Kuhn argues that drama played a powerful role in the articulation of religious difference in the seventeenth century. Tracing connections between the history of stagecraft and ethnological disciplines such as ethnography, antiquarianism, and early comparative religious writing, Kuhn shows how early ...

In this moving account*,* “America’s Superintendent” John Kuhn lays bare the scare tactics at the root of the modern school “reform” movement. Kuhn conveys a deeply held passion for the mission and promise of public education through his own experience as a school administrator in Texas. When his “Alamo Letter” first appeared in the Washington Post, it galvanized the educational community in a call to action that was impossible to ignore. This powerful book requires us to question...

In the tranquil Swedish countryside, a young woman named Helga emerges from the depths of the Marsh Croft, a mysterious and isolated dwelling. With her enigmatic past and captivating presence, she sets tongues wagging in the nearby village. As Helga's story unfolds, secrets unravel, revealing a web of love, loss, and the indomitable spirit of a woman who defies societal norms. Join Helga on her extraordinary journey as she navigates the complexities of life, love, and the search for her tr...

"Greenblatt's classic placed the world of Renaissance scholarship in a deep and vigorous dialogue with literary modernity . . . a remarkable work." —Homi BhabhaPulitzer Prize–Winning AuthorRenaissance Self-Fashioning is a study of sixteenth-century life and literature that spawned a new era of scholarly inquiry. Stephen Greenblatt examines the structure of selfhood as evidenced in major literary figures of the English Renaissance—M...

From popular histories through to reworkings of classical subject matter by contemporary poets, dramatists, and novelists, the classical world and the masterpieces of its literature continue to fascinate readers and audiences in a huge variety of media. In this Very Short Introduction, William Allan explores what the 'classics' are and why they continue to shape our Western concepts of literature. Presenting a range of material from both Greek and Latin literature, he illustrates ...

Chaucer lived through a period of extraordinary upheaval: a protracted war with France, devastating plague, the peasants' revolt, religious controversy, and the overthrow of the king. Compact and comprehensive, this book offers a wide-ranging account of the medieval society from which works such as The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde sprang, and shows how these and other works manifest that society in fictional form. Significant aspects of the literary scene, s...

Shakespeare’s gift for writing tragedies was powerful indeed. His ability to create epic tragic characters—think Hamlet, Lear, and the star-crossed Romeo and Juliet—and scenarios is virtually unrivalled. Readers examine the Bard’s major tragedies and their significance, and touch upon the state of theatre and dramatic performance in Shakespeare’s England for good measure.

This is the first critical anthology of writings about memory in Renaissance England. Drawing together excerpts from more than seventy writers, poets, physicians, philosophers and preachers, and with over twenty illustrations, the anthology offers the reader a guided exploration of the arts of memory. The introduction outlines the context for the tradition of the memory arts from classical times to the Renaissance and is followed by extracts from writers on the art of memory in general, th...

This revised and updated Companion acquaints the student reader with the forms, contexts, critical and theatrical lives of the ten plays considered to be Shakespeare's tragedies. Thirteen essays, written by leading scholars in Britain and North America, address the ways in which Shakespearean tragedy originated, developed and diversified, as well as how it has fared on stage, as text and in criticism. Topics covered include the literary precursors of Shakespeare's tragedies, cultural backg...

Retaining the thrill and tone of oral storytelling as the written word became increasingly widespread was the charge of early English writing. Beginning in the OldEnglish period and continuing through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare began to elevate the place of literature in society. This volume details the evolution of early English literature and the enduring works that have withstood centuries of linguistic and cultural cha...

“I sing of arms and of a man: his fate had made him fugitive: he was the first to journey from the coasts of Troy as far as Italy and the Lavinian shores.” The resonant opening lines of Virgil's Aeneid rank among the most famous and consistently recited verses to have been passed down to later ages by antiquity. And after the Odyssey and the Iliad, Virgil's masterpiece is arguably the greatest classical text in the whole of Western literature. This sinuous and richly characterised epic vit...