Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in Dante's Spirit
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
Product details
- ISBN 9781041246176
- Weight: 420g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 12 Mar 2026
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This book examines Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in light of Dante's revival of Platonic poetry. Marco Andreacchio's close reading of the play uncovers extraordinary lessons bearing significantly on matters of politics, religion, and philosophy; lessons that Shakespeare would offer us by way of helping us appreciate his original overarching intent as playwright.
Andreacchio's study brings to light a "classical" way Shakespeare guides readers on a spiritual journey, helping them rediscover divine agency within human desire, so as to best understand the latter in the former. Rather than departing from medieval Christian scholarship, Shakespeare would vindicate its Platonic dimension, standing against anti-Platonic intellectual currents that find their radicalization in Machiavelli and his literary heirs.
For the first time in centuries, a demonstration is given of Shakespeare's offering a viable alternative to the Machiavellian reduction of politics to ideology, or to the progressive mechanization of human life that has fueled the rise of barbarism "by another name".
Marco Antonio Andreacchio was awarded a doctorate from the University of IIllinois for his interpretation of Sino-Japanese philosophical classics in dialogue with Western counterparts and a doctorate from Cambridge University for his work on Dante’s Platonic interpretation of religious authority. Andreacchio has taught at various higher education institutions and published systematically on problems of a political-philosophical nature.
