The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes,

The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups

â€œ[Ron Rosenbaum] is one of the most original journalists and writers of our time.â€
â€“David Remnick

In The Shakespeare Wars, Ron Rosenbaum gives readers an unforgettable way of rethinking the greatest works of the human imagination. As he did in his groundbreaking Explaining Hitler, he shakes up much that we thought we understood about a vital subject and renews our sense of excitement and urgency. He gives us a Shakespeare book like no other. Rather than raking over worn-out fragments of biography, Rosenbaum focuses on cutting-edge controversies about the true source of Shakespeareâ€™s enchantment and illuminationâ€“the astonishing language itself. How best to unlock the secrets of its spell?

With quicksilver wit and provocative insight, Rosenbaum takes readers into the midst of fierce battles among the most brilliant Shakespearean scholars and directors over just how to delve deeper into the Shakespearean experienceâ€“deeper into the mind of Shakespeare.

Was Shakespeare the one-draft wonder of Shakespeare in Love? Or was he ratherâ€“as an embattled faction of textual scholars now arguesâ€“a different kind of writer entirely: a conscientious reviser of his greatest plays? Must we then revise our way of reading, staging, and interpreting such works as Hamlet and King Lear?

Rosenbaum pursues key partisans in these debates from the high tables of Oxford to a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in a strip mall in the Deep South. He makes ostensibly arcane textual scholarship intensely seductiveâ€“and sometimes even explicitly sexual. At an academic â€œPleasure Seminarâ€ in Bermuda, for instance, he examines one scholarâ€™s quest to find an orgasm in Romeo and Juliet. Rosenbaum shows us great directors as Shakespearean scholars in their own right: We hear Peter Brookâ€“perhaps the most influential Shakespearean director of the past centuryâ€“disclose his quest for a â€œsecret playâ€ hidden within the Bardâ€™s comedies and dramas. We listen to Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as he launches into an impassioned, table-pounding fury while discussing how the means of unleashing the full intensity of Shakespeareâ€™s language has been lostâ€“and how to restore it. Rosenbaumâ€™s hilarious inside account of â€œthe Great Shakespeare â€˜Funeral Elegyâ€™ Fiasco,â€ a man-versus-computer clash, illustrates the iconic struggle to define what is and isnâ€™t â€œShakespearean.â€ And he demonstrates the way Shakespearean scholars such as Harold Bloom can become great Shakespearean characters in their own right.

The Shakespeare Wars offers a thrilling opportunity to engage with Shakespeareâ€™s work at its deepest levels. Like Explaining Hitler, this book is destined to revolutionize the way we think about one of the overwhelming obsessions of our time.

From the Hardcover edition.
Country USA
Brand Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer Random House Trade Paperbacks
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9780812978360
Color Red
ReleaseDate 2008-01-08
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780812978360

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9780812978360
Color	Red
ReleaseDate	2008-01-08
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780812978360

The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups