Shakespeare's Universality: Here's Fine Revolution

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Description

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.

Reviews

[Ryan] argues powerfully against the 'arid antiquarianism' of historicist scholarship, and offers instead a Shakespeare always out of sync with his own time and thus able to transcend it ... [A] highly readable book. * Around the Globe *
[This] cogent and passionate appropriation of the idea of Shakespeares timeless universality is a critical tour de force that draws on concepts that have long animated Ryans work ... [A] riveting, beautifully argued, and important book. * Renaissance Quarterly *
This daring book is a recent addition to the Bloomsbury/Arden series, Shakespeare NOW! [which] strives to capture the excitement, audacity and surprise of Shakespeare with short books that are imaginative and provocative. Kiernan Ryans Shakespeares Universality is both of these. Ryan works diligently to redeem Shakespeares universality from conservative essentialism and recast it in the light of visionary egalitarian change. This egalitarian vision, Ryan contends, makes the plays genuinely universal. Ryans premise is that Shakespeares plays reveal his profound commitment to the potential of all human beings to live according to principles of freedom, equality and justice. * Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism *
This is a provocative and fascinating brief polemic (p. xvi) whose lean and agile argument addresses the difficult topic of why and in what ways Shakespeare has maintained such a wide and universal appeal through a period of some four hundred years. * Memoria di Shakespeare *

Author Bio

Kiernan Ryan is Professor of English Language and Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK and an Emeritus Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, UK.