Shakespeare Against War

Pacifist Readings

Inbunden, Engelska, 2024

AvRobert White,The University of Western Australia) White, Robert (Emeritus Winthrop Professor of English

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Whilst Shakespearean drama provides eloquent calls to war, more often than not these are undercut or outweighed by compelling appeals to peaceful alternatives conveyed through narrative structure, dramatic context and poetic utterance. Placing Shakespeare's works in the history of pacifist thought, Robert White argues that Shakespeare's plays consistently challenge appeals to heroism and revenge and reveal the brutal futility of war. White also examines Shakespeare's interest in the mental states of military officers when their ingrained training is tested in love relationships. In imagery and themes, war infiltrates love, with problematical consequences, reflected in Shakespeare's comedies, histories and tragedies alike. Challenging a critical orthodoxy that military engagement in war is an inevitable and necessary condition, White draws analogies with the experience of modern warfare, showing the continuing relevance of Shakespeare's plays which deal with basic issues of war and peace that are still evident.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2024-05-31
Mått156 x 234 x 24 mm
Vikt628 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor304
FörlagEdinburgh University Press
ISBN9781399516211

Tillhör följande kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Politik och statsskick inom Samhälle och politik
Dramatik inom Skönlitteratur

Robert White FAHA is Emeritus Winthrop Professor of English at the University of Western Australia and a Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions 1100–1800. He has held a Fellowship at the Humanities Research Centre, ANU, an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship, and recently the Senior Visiting Research Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford. His publications are mainly in the field of early modern literature, especially Shakespeare, and also Romantic literature. Monographs include Keats’s Anatomy of Melancholy (Edinburgh University Press, 2020); John Keats: A Literary Life (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, revised ed. 2012); Pacifism in English Literature: Minstrels of Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Natural Rights and the Birth of Romanticism in the 1790s (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); and Natural Law in English Renaissance Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Others include Avant-Garde Hamlet (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2015); Shakespeare’s Cinema of Love (Manchester University Press, 2016); Ambivalent Macbeth (Sydney University Press, 2018); and A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Language and Writing (Bloomsbury Arden Study, 2020).

AcknowledgmentsPart I: Men at War1. ‘Look upon the hideous god of war’: Reading Shakespeare as a Pacifist2. ‘Bloody-hunting slaughtermen’: War Crimes and Unjust War in the History Plays3. ‘Food for powder’: Casualties of War4. Revenge and Mutually Assured Destruction: Reflections on Hamlet and Kant5. ‘Bind Fast his corky arms’: Torture in King LearPart II: Love and War6. Love in Times of War7. All’s Well in Love and War – or Is it?8. Make War, not Love: Othello’s ‘Occupation’9. Farewell to Arms: Antony and Cleopatra10. Beyond War: ‘"If" is your only peacemaker’BibliographyIndex

One of the book’s main strengths is the way it combines its analysis of Shakespeare’s texts with a consideration of their continuing relevance to contemporary political disputes and military conflicts. […] This presentist approach underscores the book’s timeliness and significance. […] Shakespeare Against War is a thought-provoking study that puts forward a convincing argument for an urgent rethinking of our attitudes to war and its representations in literature and culture.