Shakespeare's Individualism

Why should we bother with Shakespeare today? A provocative perspective on the theme of individual freedom in Shakespeare's work.

Shakespeare, claims Peter Holbrook, is an author who cares above all for the value of individual freedom, the ideal of 'being oneself'. Through detailed discussion of many of Shakespeare's plays and poems, this book demonstrates how central the theme of individual freedom is to Shakespeare.Providing a provocative and original perspective on Shakespeare, Peter Holbrook argues that Shakespeare is an author friendly to such essentially modern and unruly notions as individuality, freedom, self-realization and authenticity. These expressive values vivify Shakespeare's own writing; they also form a continuous, and a central, part of the Shakespearean tradition. Engaging with the theme of the individual will in specific plays and poems, and examining a range of libertarian-minded scholarly and literary responses to Shakespeare over time, Shakespeare's Individualism advances the proposition that one of the key reasons for reading Shakespeare today is his commitment to individual liberty - even as we recognize that freedom is not just an indispensable ideal but also, potentially, a dangerous one. Engagingly written and jargon free, this book demonstrates that Shakespeare has important things to say about fundamental issues of human existence.