ABSTRACT
This in-depth collection of essays traces the changing reception of Shakespeare over the past four hundred years, during which time Shakespeare has variously been seen as the last great exponent of pre-modern Western culture, a crucial inaugurator of modernity, and a prophet of postmodernity. This fresh look at Shakespeare's plays is an important contribution to the revival of the idea of 'modernity' and how we periodise ourselves, and Shakespeare, at the beginning of a new millennium.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |24 pages
Shakespeare, modernity and the aesthetic
Art, truth and judgement in The Winter's Tale
chapter |17 pages
‘Jew. Shylock is my name'
Speech prefixes in The Merchant of Venice as symptoms of the early modern
chapter |26 pages
Jewish invader and the soul of state
The Merchant of Venice and science fiction movies