King Richard III: Language and Writing

Review

“Lemon’s guide displays…breadth and insight, even as it touches down on quite different categories, including the forms and features of the play in print, the discourse of conscience, the device of murder, and the array of Richards brought forth by modernity (Fascist, Libyan, Digital, and Documentary, among others). This choice for discretion over consistency in format and emphasis is no doubt a reason that the series, under the editorship of Dympna Callaghan, has attracted such excellent contributors. Its latest companions are boons for those teaching writing-intensive courses, as well as for those simply seeking better essays from their students.” - Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

Product Description

A new type of study aid which combines lively critical insight with practical guidance on the critical writings skills students need to develop in order to engage fully with Shakespeare's texts. The book's core focus is on language: both understanding and enjoying Shakespeare's complex dramatic language, and expanding the student's own critical vocabulary as they respond to the play.
The book explores several different approaches to Shakespeare's language. It looks at how the subtleties of Shakespeare's language reveal the thought processes and motivations of his characters, often in ways those characters themselves don't recognise; it analyses how Shakespeare's language works within or sometimes against various historical contexts, the contexts of stage performance, of genre and of discourses of his day (of religion, law, commerce, and friendship); and it explores how the peculiarities of Shakespeare's language often point to broad issues, themes, or ways of thinking that transcend any one character or line of action. Each chapter includes a "Writing Matters" section, giving students ideas and guidance for building their own critical response to the play and the skills to articulate it with confidence.

About the Author

Dympna Callaghan is William L. Safire Professor of Modern Letters in the Department of English at Syracuse University. She has published widely on the playwrights and poets of the English Renaissance and was President of the Shakespeare Association of America in 2012-13. Callaghan has held fellowships at the Folger, Huntington and Newberry Libraries, at the Getty Research Centre in Los Angeles, and, most recently, at the Bogliasco Center for Arts and Humanities in Liguria, Italy.