Shakespeare and Moral Agency

"Character criticism" fell out of fashion during the last two decades of the twentieth century, and with it, to some extent, questions of in moral agency. The distinguished contributors to this new anthology return such questions to center stage, and do so through fresh vocabularies of gesture, embodied movement, political theory, behavioral and cognitive science, ethics and moral philosophy. Speaking directly to issues of meaning in Shakespeare's plays, the essays explore how narratives of self-reflection and self-preservation often clash when confronted with the requirements of moral agency, and reveal how unpredictable such stories are when performed on the respective stages of history and society. Theoretically fluent in the debates of the last twenty years, the authors in the volume never confuse Shakespearean characters with "real people." They do, however, support editor Michael Bristol's contention that "you have to be able to take these creations seriously." The essays in this book provide a strong case for removing the scare-quotes from character criticism as we confront the moral dilemmas--some new and many longstanding-- of the twenty-first century." - Linda Charnes, Professor of English and West European Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA Michael Bristol... offers in this useful collection of 13 essays some compelling arguments why 'openness to an emotional engagement with' Shakespeare's dramatic incarnations pays dividends that far outweigh any potential confusions of fiction with reality. Cahiers Elisabethains