Oxford Shakespeare Topics (General Editors Peter Holland and Stanley Wells) provide students, teachers, and interested readers with short books on important aspects of Shakespeare criticism and scholarship, including some general anthologies relating to Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Reading explores Shakespeare's marvellous reshaping of sources into new creations. Beginning with a discussion of how and what Elizabethans read - manuscripts, popular pamphlets, and books - Robert S. Miola goes on to examine Shakespeare's use of specific texts such as Holinshed's Chronicles, Plutarch's Lives, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. As well as reshaping other writers' work, Shakespeare transformed traditions - the inherited expectations, tropes, and strategies about character, action, and genre. For example, the tradition of Italian love poetry, especially Petrach, shapes Romeo and Juliet as well as the sonnets; the Vice figure finds new life in Richard III and Falstaff. Employing a traditional understanding of sources as well as more recent developments in intertextuality, this book traces Shakespeare's reading as well as inspiring the sonnets; the Vice figure is translated into Richard III and Falstaff. Employing a traditional understanding of sources as well as more recent developments in intertextuality, this book tracks Shakespeare's reading throughout his career, as it inspires his poetry, histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances. Repeated references to the plays in performance enliven and enrich the account.
Reviews
It is (this) freely associative aspect of Elizabethan writing and reading that Miola wishes to emphasize, a subtle but significant insight into authorship for teachers and students alike. * Years Work in English Studies *
Begins with a clear and persuasive introductory chapter on the nature and status of reading in the Elizabethan period ... Miola's book offers a way into the fascinating work on histories and theories of reading being carried out by Philippe Aries, Robert Darnton, Peggy Kamuf, Kevin Sharpe, and others. * Modern Language Review *
Students should appreciate Miola's introduction to Renaissance printing practices, as well as his discussion of the economics of the book trade. * Ben Jonson Journal *
The most interesting recent development in Shakespeare publishing has been the establishment of the Oxford Shakespeare Topics ... Miola's book promises well for the series. It is a clear distillation of much careful thought and research, with incisive readings of a variety of plays and poems often illuminated by references to recent Shakespeare productions and films, as well as more popular culture. * ENGLISH *
Miola is an assured and trustworthy guide who always makes judicious use of the space available to him and carefully works out what Shakespeare could and could not have known. * ENGLISH *
Oxford University Press offer a mix of engagingly written introductions to a variety of Topics intended largely for undergraduates. Each author has clearly been reading and listening to the most recent scholarship, but they wear their learning lightly. * Ruth Morse, Times Literary Supplement *
Let us welcome Miola's smart and stylish monograph, an indispensable one-volume introduction to the vexed subject that shows exactly how Shakespeare transformed his sources - Ovid, Plutarch, Virgil, Chaucer, Gower, diverse obscure Italians et cetera - into something rich and strange. * Stephen Poole, The Guardian *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198711698
Author Robert S. Miola
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 203mm * 134mm * 12mm