This contextual guide to Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra highlights the ways in which the play was shaped by an interplay of political, cultural and social influences, existing in and beyond the playhouse.
Employing commentary on the play’s main themes, coupled with an editorial apparatus that connects selected primary texts (from Ovid to Montaigne) with Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Jyotsna G. Singh and Daniel Vitkus guide the reader through a series of fascinating readings that serve to reconstruct the intellectual and artistic world of Antony and Cleopatra through varied perspectives. This includes chapters on History and Prophecy; Myth; Geography; Gender, Desire, and Eroticism; Theatricality, Festivity, and Spectacle; and Emblematic Perspectives; followed by a Coda describing and analysing some 'Afterlives' of the play on the modern stage. Through their exposure to these thematic frameworks, readers will come to understand more clearly the interpretive possibilities offered by Antony and Cleopatra as a complex and masterful work of art.
Arvustused
This magnificent volume is just what we have been waiting for. The range of sources and cultural materials is stunning; the images provided are thought-provoking and exciting. The preparation of the materials footnotes and cultural information to make the primary sources more accessible, plus commentary to explain is a brilliant touch! -- Susanne L. Wofford, New York University
List of Figures
About this Volume
Acknowledgements
Chronology: Key Historical Events, 8219 BCE
Family Trees: Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Octavius Caesar, Pompey
Introduction. Infinite Variety: A Contextual Guide to Shakespeares Antony
and Cleopatra
1. History and Prophecy
2. Myth
3. Geography
4. Gender, Desire, Eroticism
5. Theatricality, Festivity, Spectacle
6. Emblematic Perspectives
Coda. Antony and Cleopatra's Afterlives
Bibliography
Index
Jyotsna G. Singh is Professor Emerita in the Department of English at Michigan State University. Her key publications include The Weyward Sisters: Shakespeare and Feminist Politics (co-authored with Dympna Callaghan and Lorraine Helms, 1994), Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues: Discoveries of India in the Language of Colonialism (1996), Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory (2019), Travel Knowledge (co-edited with Ivo Kamps, 2001), and A Companion to the Global Renaissance: Literature and Culture in the Era of Expansion, 15001700 (2009, 2021). Daniel Vitkus is Professor and Rebeca Hickel Endowed Chair in Elizabethan Literature at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Turning Turk: English Theater and the Multicultural Mediterranean, 1570-1630 (2003) and of numerous articles and book chapters on the literature and cultural history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Vitkus is also the editor of Piracy, Slavery and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early Modern England (2001) and Three Turk Plays from Early Modern England (2000).
