Shakespeare, Politics, and Italy: Intertextuality on the Jacobean Stage (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780754662518)

The use of Italian culture in the Jacobean theatre was never an isolated gesture. In considering the ideological repercussions of references to Italy in prominent works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Michael J. Redmond argues that early modern intertextuality was a dynamic process of allusion, quotation, and revision. Beyond any individual narrative source, Redmond foregrounds the fundamental role of Italian textual precedents in the staging of domestic anxieties about state crisis, nationalism, and court intrigue. By focusing on the self-conscious, overt rehearsal of existing texts and genres, the book offers a new approach to the intertextual strategies of early modern English political drama. The pervasive circulation of Cinquecento political theorists like Machiavelli, Castiglione, and Guicciardini combined with recurrent English representations of Italy to ensure that the negotiation with previous writing formed an integral part of the dramatic agendas of period plays.

Author: Michael J. Redmond
ISBN-10: 0754662519
ISBN-13: 9780754662518
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 08/07/2009
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.63d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2010