Ebook: Re-Humanising Shakespeare: Literary Humanism, Wisdom and Modernity

Can Shakespeare help us with the question of how to live?

Re-Humanising Shakespeare argues that although Shakespeare strikingly dramatizes how our capacity for conscious reflection distances us from the perceived spontaneity and naturalness of the human, his plays nevertheless protect human nature and a profound wisdom about human nature from complete liquefaction.

A key addition to this new edition is an extended discussion of the nature of Shakespeare’s literary humanism. Revised throughout, the book includes: a new introduction which focuses attention on what is specific to literature’s treatment of the human (as epitomised by Shakespeare); a section drawing on new work on literary genres as different forms of engagement with human life; and a new chapter on Richard II.

Blending theory and an updated critical vocabulary with close analysis of the plays, this book makes provocative reading for all those interested in Shakespeare, ethics, human being and the value of literature.

Key Features

• Offers new ways of understanding literature’s distinctive treatment of the human
• Revised throughout to include a new section on genre, as well as a chapter on Richard II
• Shows through detailed readings of the plays how Shakespeare both unsettles and reclaims ideas about being human
• Provides a clear account of modernity which illuminates the relationship between critical theory, scepticism and literary humanism
• Includes close readings of Hamlet, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Love’s Labour’s Lost, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale