Problem fathers in Shakespeare and Renaissance drama /

Fathers are central to the drama of Shakespeare's time: they are revered, even sacred, yet they are also flawed human beings who feature as obstacles in plays of all genres. In Problem Fathers in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, Tom MacFaul examines how fathers are paradoxical and almost anom...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: MacFaul, Tom
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:Cover image
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Table of contents only
Description
Summary:Fathers are central to the drama of Shakespeare's time: they are revered, even sacred, yet they are also flawed human beings who feature as obstacles in plays of all genres. In Problem Fathers in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, Tom MacFaul examines how fathers are paradoxical and almost anomalous characters on the English Renaissance stage. Starting as figures of confident authority in early Elizabethan drama, their scope for action becomes gradually more restricted, until by late Jacobean drama they have accepted the limitations of their power. MacFaul argues that this process points towards a crisis of patriarchal authority in wider contemporary culture. While Shakespeare's plays provide a key insight into these shifts, this book explores the dramatic culture of the period more widely to present the ways in which Shakespeare's work differed from that of his contemporaries while both sharing and informing their artistic and ideological preoccupations.
Physical Description:viii, 259 pages ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9781107028944
1107028949