Author: Gwendolyn Compton-Engle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015-04-27
Total Pages: 217
ISBN-13: 1107083796
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book interprets the handling of costume in the plays of the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes, using as evidence the surviving plays as well as vase-paintings and terracotta figurines. This book fills a gap in the study of ancient Greek drama, focusing on performance, gender, and the body.
Author: John Pendergast
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2019-12-02
Total Pages: 215
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →With summaries, discussions, and excerpts from primary source documents, this book examines Shakespeare's world through careful consideration of the historical background of four of his comedies. Comedy was popular during the Renaissance, and it was also one of Shakespeare's specialties. The four plays discussed in this book, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night and The Tempest, span Shakespeare's career and remind us that Shakespeare, more than any of his contemporaries, explored the possibilities of comedy, consistently developing new approaches to the genre. Shakespeare was a fairly traditional playwright, well aware of the long tradition of comedy, which dates back to the Greeks and Romans. This book places Shakespeare's comedies in their historical context. It includes dedicated chapters on each of the four comedies, with each chapter providing a plot summary, a discussion of the play's historical background and significance, and excerpts from primary source documents related to the play. An introduction surveys the historical background of the plays, while a timeline chronicles key events that influenced them. Suggestions for further reading direct readers to additional sources of information.
Author: Stephen P. Thompson
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
Published: 2014-04-25
Total Pages: 161
ISBN-13: 0737769823
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This fascinating edition examines the comedies of playwright William Shakespeare through the lens of sexuality. Essays explore topics such as the ambiguity of Shakespeare's sonnets, Renaissance attitudes toward sexuality, themes of misogyny in Taming of the Shrew, and sexual anxiety in Much Ado About Nothing. Modern perspectives on sexuality and courtship are also presented, covering subjects such as social media and dating, modern mythology about the differences between genders, and a decline in American romantic comedies.
Author: Niccolo Machiavelli
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Published: 2007-09-15
Total Pages: 418
ISBN-13: 1603840257
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Though better known today as a political theorist than as a dramatist, Machiavelli secured his fame as a giant in the history of Italian comedy more than fifty years before Shakespeare's comedies delighted English-speaking audiences. This bilingual edition includes all three examples of Machiavelli's comedic art: sparkling translations of his farcical masterpiece, The Mandrake; of his version of Terence's The Woman From Andros; and of his Plautus-inspired Clizia--works whose genre afforded Machiavelli a unique vehicle not only for entertaining audiences but for examining virtue amid the twists and turns of fortune.
Author: Kate Aughterson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-03-14
Total Pages: 140
ISBN-13: 1350317926
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Kate Aughterson provides readers with an approachable and fascinating critical guide to the dramatic works of an important seventeenth-century woman writer. Aughterson analyses Aphra Behn's abilities as a playwright, showing particularly how she skillfully employs comic and dramatic conventions to radical ends, and how she forces her audience to engage with issues about gender and sexuality whilst retaining her witty and accessible style. Chapters in the first part of the book provide close readings of the comedies, addressing such topics as openings, endings, character types, staging, and politics and society. In the second part, Aughterson not only examines Behn's literary career and the Restoration contexts of her plays, but also looks at some sample criticism and explores Behn's drama as performance.
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: BookCaps Study Guides
Published: 2013-11-07
Total Pages: 1109
ISBN-13: 1610426320
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A massive anthology of Shakespeare's comedies are collected here; included is an analysis of each major work and a biography about the life and times of Shakespeare. The following works are included in this collection: All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors A Fairy Tale in Two Acts Taken from Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles Prince of Tyre The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter's Tale