Shakespeare the Bodger

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A01=Joel Altman
A01=Joel B. Altman
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Author_Joel Altman
Author_Joel B. Altman
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DSBD
Category=DSG
Category=DSGS
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Pre-order
Ekphrasis
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Giulio Romano
Ingenuity
Language_English
Literary Imitation
PA=Not yet available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Forthcoming
Shakespeare
softlaunch
Tragicomedy

Product details

  • ISBN 9781399508421
  • Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
  • Publication Date: 30 Nov 2024
  • Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
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Drawing inspiration from Robert Greene’s deathbed attack on Shakespeare as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers," The Bodger (Elizabethan variant of "botcher," "mender," "patcher") argues that Shakespeare’s dramas are compositions of "shreds and patches" pieced together by a mind of extraordinary synthetic acuity. Such patches include passages of dialogue that, as described in the sixteenth century, "lead objects before our eyes" by means of ekphrasis.  The book offers substantial art-historical research into the only visual artist named by Shakespeare, Giulio Romano--who performs an important role in The Winter’s Tale as the alleged sculptor of a statue of the dead Queen. Giulio, heir to Raphael's workshop, is known primarily as a painter and architect.  My research has revealed that he was also a designer of sculpture. Applying historical and theoretical materials to close readings of several plays, I focus on the most critical issues of The Winter’s Tale—King Leontes’ sudden fit of jealousy; Shakespeare’s introduction of a surrogate playwright in the personification of Time, who refashions the play from tragedy to comedy, assisted by a behind-the-scenes female ghost writer; and the Queen’s statue amazingly "coming to life" through an interactive declaration of faith.
Joel Altman is Emeritus Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley. He has most published many books and articles over the span of his career, his most recent include The Tudor Play of Mind: Rhetorical Inquiry and The Development of Elizabethan Drama (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978--re-issued 2018) and The Improbability of Othello: Rhetorical Anthropology and Shakespearean Selfhood (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010).

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