Discover an invigorating new perspective on the life and work of
William Shakespeare
The Life of the Author: William Shakespeare delivers a fresh and
exciting new take on the life of William Shakespeare, offering readers a
biography that brings to the foreground his working life as a poet,
playwright, and actor. It also explores the nature of his relationships
with his friends, colleagues, and family, and asks important questions
about the stories we tell about Shakespeare based on the evidence we
actually have about the man himself.
The book is written using scholarly citations and references, but with
an approachable style suitable for readers with little or no background
knowledge of Shakespeare or the era in which he lived. The Life of
the Author: William Shakespeare asks provocative questions about the
playwright-poet's preoccupation with gender roles and sexuality, and
explores why it is so challenging to ascertain his political and
religious allegiances. Conservative or radical? Misogynist or
proto-feminist? A lover of men or women or both? Patriot or xenophobe?
This introduction to Shakespeare's life and works offers no simple
answers, but recognizes a man intensely responsive to the world around
him, a playwright willing and able to collaborate with others and able
to collaborate with others, and, of course, his exceptional, perhaps
unique, contribution to literature in English.
The book covers the entirety of William Shakespeare's life (1564-1616),
taking him from his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon to his success in
the theatre world of London and then back to his home town and
comfortable retirement. The Life of the Author: William Shakespeare
sets his achievement as a writer within the dangerous, vibrant cultural
world that was Elizabethan and Jacobean England, revealing a writer's
life of frequent collaboration, occasional crisis, but always of
profound creativity.
Perfect for undergraduate students in Literature, Drama, Theatre
Studies, History, and Cultural Studies courses, The Life of the
Author: William Shakespeare will also earn a place in the libraries of
students interested in Gender Studies and Creative Writing.
