Shakespeare's Serial History Plays

Nicholas Grene author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:3rd Jan '02

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Shakespeare's Serial History Plays cover

A re-reading of the two sequences of Shakespeare's English history plays.

This book provides a re-reading of the two sequences of English history plays, Henry VI-Richard III and Richard II-Henry V, looking both at their original creation in the 1590s and at modern serial productions or adaptations.Shakespeare's Serial History Plays provides a re-reading of the two sequences of English history plays, Henry VI-Richard III and Richard II-Henry V. Reconsidering the chronicle sources and the staging practices of Shakespeare's time, Grene argues that the history plays were originally designed for serial performance. He charts the cultural and theatrical conditions that led to serial productions of the histories, in Europe as well as in the English-speaking world, and looks at their original creation in the 1590s and at modern productions or adaptations, from famous stagings such as the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1960s Wars of the Roses through to the present day. Grene focuses on the issues raised by the plays' seriality: the imagination of war, the emergence of character, and the uses of prophecies and curses through the first four; techniques of retrospection, hybrid dramatic forms, and questions of irony and agency in the second.

"...the study does contribute to understanding how the history plays show different aspects of Shakespeare's process of composition and design as he matured as a playwright." Choice
"This work is phenomenal in its scope and importance. Nicholas Grene should be commended for a thoroughly researched study..." Sixteenth Century Journal
"The book will deservedly find a wide audience across the English/Drama subject area, offering cogent textual and performance criticism." New Theatre Quarterly

ISBN: 9780521773416

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 17mm

Weight: 590g

298 pages