Books in the Shakespeare Now! series

Through close readings of a wide range of plays and poems, Kiernan Ryan''s compelling polemic sets out to reclaim the idea of Shakespeare''s timeless universality from reactionary and radical critics alike. Its argument is driven throughout by the belief that at this moment in history the need to recognise and activate the revolutionary potential of Shakespeare''s drama is more urgent than ever.The volume has been shortlisted for the European Society for the Study of English 2016 Prize for the best critical study in the field of Literatures in the English Language.

Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' soliloquy is quoted more often than almost any other passage in Shakespeare. Part of the "Shakespeare Now!" series, this title takes this famous speech and looks at it's meaning to reveal the questions and problems it raises. It reads the individual words, phrases and sentences of Hamlet's speech in 'slow motion'.

Suggesting that textual mediators have a positive rather than negative role, this book argues that any reader of Shakespeare, scholar, student, or general reader, approaches Shakespeare through edited versions that have a relationship to what Shakespeare may actually have intended and written.

Sheds light on developments in science, ethics, law, and religion in contemporary culture. This book reveals peculiarity of early scientific thought in Shakespeare's time and shows how the questions he poses remain fundamental as the nature of "life" has become one of the most pressing political, ethical, and philosophical problems for society.

Offers an insight into Shakespeare's place in today's soceity, particularly in major institutions such as the military, prisons and schools.

An exploration of how the self is revealed or exposed in the experience of reading, viewing and writing about Shakespeare. It intends to inspire readers to think and write about their personal relationship with Shakespeare: about how the poems and plays - and writing about them - can reveal or transform our sense of ourselves.

A study revealing Shakespeare's career-long engagement with the sea and his frequent use of maritime imagery. It sets Shakespeare's sea-poetry against modern literary seascapes, including the vast Pacific of "Moby-Dick", the rocky coast of Charles Olson's "Maximus Poems", and the lyrical waters of the postcolonial "Caribbean".

An account of the value of experience and emotion in reading Shakespeare's sonnets and of the importance of reading poetry aloud. It discusses how reading the poems aloud can offer one of the best ways of fully participating in properly engaged reading.

Schools and universities are fast becoming managerial 'courts' of learning in which educators and students are system creatures busily fulfilling system protocols. Any teacher or academic yearning for fresh and authentic approaches to their discipline must first find ways to imagine possibilities beyond the system's limits. This book sounds the depths of the problem in respect to Literary Studies and proposes strategies for effecting voluntary 'exile' from court in pursuit of more imaginative approaches to the teaching and learning of Shakespeare and Marlowe.

Paul Cefalu argues that Shakespearean characters raise timely questions about the relationship between cognition and consciousness and often defy our assumptions about "normal" cognition. The book will appeal to scholars and students interested in both the virtuesand limitations of cognitive literary criticism.

Othello's Secret uncovers the relationship between the play and the conflicts that have torn apart its Cypriot setting, providing a new and powerfully political reading. Exploring the domestic and military anxieties connected by Shakespeare, Christofides highlights the ways in which these issues resonate with current ideological and geographical divisions in Cyprus, divisions rooted in the 16th century struggles to control the island. Challenging the conventional view of Othello as a Venetian play, this book offers a fierce and personal example of how early modern literature can purposefully contribute to even the most complex geopolitical debates.

Shakespearean thinking is always dynamic: thinking that happens in the living moment of its performance, in quickly passing process. This book offers a model of human mentality that can be shown through the dense immediacy of dramatic thinking, as embodied above all in Shakespeare's working method.

Part of the "Shakespeare Now!" series, this book presents an account of the absence of God and belief in Shakespeare's plays. Following Dante's three-part structure for the "Divine Comedy", the first part represents expressions of religious faith, the second sets out more sceptical positions, and the last presents articulations of godlessness.

Outlaws, irreverent humorists, political underdogs, authoritarians... these are the images of Australians as revealed through the lens of "King Lear" play. This title focuses on the wide-ranging issues of identity and history raised by "King Lear" by exploring Australians' engagements with the play.