Bible in Shakespeare

Аннотация

Despite the widespread popular sense that the Bible and the works of Shakespeare are the two great pillars of English culture, and despite the long-standing critical recognition that the Bible was a major source of Shakespeares allusions and references, there has never been a full-length, critical study of the Bible in Shakespeares plays. The Bible in Shakespeare addresses this serious deficiency. Early chapters describe the post-Reformation explosion ofBible translation and the development of English biblical culture, compare the Church and the Theatre as cultural institutions (particularly in terms of the audiences auditory experience), and describe in general terms Shakespeares allusive practice. Later chapters are devoted to interpreting Shakespearesuse of biblical allusion in a wide variety of plays, across the spectrum of genres: King Lear and Job, Macbeth and Revelation, the Crucifixion in the Roman Histories, Falstaffs anarchic biblical allusions, and variations on Adam, Eve, and the Fall throughout Shakespeares dramatic career, from Romeo and Juliet to The Winters Tale.The Bible in Shakespeare offers a significant new perspective on Shakespeares plays, and reveals how the culture of early modern England was both dependent upon and fashioned out of a deep engagement with the interpreted Bible. The books wide-ranging and interdisciplinary nature will interest scholars in a variety of fields: Shakespeare and English literature, allusion and intertextuality, theater studies, history, religious culture, and biblical interpretation. With growingscholarly interest in the impact of religion on early modern culture, the time is ripe for such a publication.