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The Anatomy of Insults in Shakespeare's World

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Anatomy of Insults in Shakespeare's World
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Dr Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:336
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
ISBN/Barcode 9781350055490
ClassificationsDewey:822.33
Audience
Tertiary Education (US: College)

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint The Arden Shakespeare
Publication Date 16 June 2022
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The Anatomy of Insults in Shakespeare's World explores Shakespeare's complex art of insults and shows how the playwright set abusive words at the heart of many of his plays. It provides valuable insights on a key aspect of Shakespeare's work that has been little explored to date. Focusing on the most memorable scenes of insult, abusive characters and insulting effects in the plays, the volume shifts how readers understand and read Shakespeare's insults. Chapters analyze the spectacular rhetoric of insult in Henry IV, Troilus and Cressida and Timon of Athens; the 'skirmishes of wit' in Much Ado about Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream; insult and duelling codes in Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, the complex relationships between slander and insult in Much Ado about Nothing and Measure for Measure; the taming of the tongue in Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew, the trauma of insults in Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Cymbeline and insult beyond words in Henry V and King lear. Grasping insult as a specific speech act, the volume explores the issues of verbal violence and verbal shields and the importance of reception and interpretation in matters of insult. It offers a panorama of the Elizabethan politics of insult and redefines Shakespeare's drama as a theatre of insults.

Author Biography

Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin is Professor in the English department of the Universite Paul-Valery Montpellier 3 and a member of the IRCL, Institute for Research on the Renaissance, the Neo-Classical Age and the Enlightenment (UMR 5186 CNRS), France.

Reviews

Wide-ranging, accessible study of the power of insult across Shakespeare dramatic oeuvre. With its incisive, historically-informed close-readings and attention to the cultural resonance of different forms of insult, this work sheds light on the role and significance of insult within Shakespeare's plays and in Elizabethan culture more broadly. * Cathy Shrank, University of Sheffield, UK *