Staging the Renaissance Book

Within English Renaissance studies, the powerful influence of new critical methodologies - feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism - has radically changed our conceptions of texts and respresentation itself. Literary texts are now viewed as "sites" of meaning, not its exclusive sources, as stages where authors and readers negotiate the conventions of society and language to contest and construct the significance of texts. The essays in "Staging the Renaissance" analyze this dynamic process within Renaissance drama where texts stage radical collaborations between playwright, actor, stage, audience and the pressures of the social, economic and political environment. The theatre emerges as the site of a rich confluence of cultural forces, the place where social meanings are both formed and transformed. The essays offer critical reassessments of individual non-Shakespearean plays, rethinking both canonical classics and rediscovering the importance of such marginal texts as "The Tragedy of Mariam". "Staging the Renaissance" aims to demonstrate the variety and vitality not only of contemporary criticism, but of Renaissance drama itself. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers of English Renaissance literature and drama.Read More