Tales from Shakespeare (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107071292)

In this engaging new book, writer and critic Graham Holderness shows how a classic Shakespeare play can be the source for a modern story, providing a creative 'collision' between the Shakespeare text and contemporary concerns. Using an analogy from particle physics, Holderness tests his methodology through specific examples, structured in four parts: a recreation of performances of Hamlet and Richard II aboard the East India Company ship the Red Dragon in 1607; an imagined encounter between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson writing the King James Bible; the creation of a contemporary folk hero based on Coriolanus and drawing on films such as Skyfall and The Hurt Locker; and an account of the terrorist bombing at a performance of Twelfth Night in Qatar in 2005. These pieces of narrative and drama are interspersed with literary criticism, each using a feature of the original Shakespeare play or its performance to illuminate the extraordinary elasticity of Shakespeare. The 'tales' provoke questions about what we understand to be Shakespeare and not-Shakespeare, making the book of vital interest to students, scholars, and enthusiasts of Shakespeare, literary criticism and creative writing.

Author: Graham Holderness
ISBN-10: 1107071291
ISBN-13: 9781107071292
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 07/03/2014
Pages: 257
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.40w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2015 pg. 1312