The Merchant of Venice: A Critical Reader

(Hardback)

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Arden Early Modern Drama Guides offer students and academics practical and accessible introductions to the critical and performance contexts of key Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Essays from leading international scholars give invaluable insight into the text by presenting a range of critical perspectives, making the books ideal companions for study and research. Key features include: - Essays on the plays critical and performance history - A keynote essay on current research and thinking about the play - A selection of new essays by leading scholars A survey of resources to direct students further reading about the play in print and online Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice has often been labelled a problem play, and throughout the ages it has been an object of both fascination and repulsion. Without neglecting the socio-political and religious issues that are at the heart of the play, this collection of critical essays invites readers to rediscover the variety of approaches that this multifaceted work calls for, exploring its gender aspects, its rich mythological background, its legal matters and the ways in which it has been adapted to the screen. Essays consider the play in relation to its sources, genre and religion, historical and socio-political context and its critical reception and performance history.

Reviews

A varied and engaging set of essays including the encyclopaedically factual and the daringly interpretative. * Cahiers lisabthains *

Author Bio

Sarah Hatchuel is Professor in Film & Media Studies at the university Paul-Valry Montpellier 3, France, and former President of the Socit Franaise Shakespeare. Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin is Professor in Shakespeare studies at the University Paul-Valry Montpellier 3, France, former Vice President of the Socit Franaise Shakespeare and director of the Institut de Recherche sur la Renaissance, lge Classique et les Lumires.