Much Ado About Nothing: A Critical Reader
(Paperback)
Available Formats
Publishing Details
Much Ado About Nothing: A Critical Reader
By (Author) Dr. Deborah Cartmell
Edited by Peter J. Smith
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
The Arden Shakespeare
22nd August 2019
United Kingdom
Classifications
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800
Literary studies: general
822.33
Physical Properties
Paperback
280
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
272g
Description
This volume offers an accessible and thought-provoking guide to this major Shakespearean comedy, surveying its key themes and evolving critical preoccupations. It also provides a detailed and up-to-date history of the plays rich stage and screen performance, looking closely at major contemporary performances, including Josie Rourkes film starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones at the Old Vic, and the RSCs recent rebranding of it as a sequel. Moving through to four new critical essays, the guide opens up fresh perspectives, including contemporary directors deployment of older actors within the lead roles, the plays relationship to Loves Labours Lost, its presence on Youtube and the ways in which tales and ruses in the play belong to a wider concern with varieties of crime. The volume finishes with a guide to critical, web-based and production-related resources and an annotated bibliography provide a basis for further research.
Reviews
A commendably comprehensive guide to textual and performance scholarship on the play. * Cahiers Elisabethains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies *
Author Bio
Deborah Cartmell is Professor of English, De Montfort University, UK. Her recent publications include Adaptations in the Sound Era: 1927-3, Teaching Adaptations, ed. and A Companion to Literature, Film and Adaptation. She is co-editor and founder of the international journals, Adaptation and Shakespeare and series editor of the Bloomsbury Adaptation Histories. Peter J. Smith is reader in Renaissance literature, Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of Social Shakespeare; Between Two Stools and co-editor of Hamlet: Theory and Practice. He is a trustee of the British Shakespeare Association. His essays and reviews have appeared in Cahiers Elisabethains, Critical Quarterly, Shakespeare, Shakespeare Bulletin, Shakespeare Survey, Times Higher Education.
