Shakespeare's Pictures: Visual Objects in the Drama

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Shakespeare's Pictures is the first full-length study of visual objects in Shakespearean drama. In several plays (Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night, among others) pictures are brought on stage - in the form of portraits or other images - as part of the dramatic action. Shakespeare's characters show, exchange and describe them. The pictures arouse in their beholders strong feelings, of desire, nostalgia or contempt, and sometimes even taking the place of the people they depict. The pictures presented in Shakespeare's work are part of the language of the drama, and they have a significant impact on theatrical performance, from Shakespeare's time to our own. Keir Elam pays close attention to the iconographic and literary contexts of Shakespeare's pictures while also exploring their role in performance history. Highly illustrated with 46 images, this volume examines the conflicted cooperation between the visual and the verbal.

Reviews

Highly nuanced in its close readings of key moments ... Equally adept in his use of historical sources and his deployment of modern theories of 'performativity', Elam is a stylish guide through the Shakespearean picture gallery. * Times Literary Supplement *
[Elam's] book offers a number of interesting readings, an astute account of relevant artistic and literary developments, together with a lively sense of early modern history. * The Review of English Studies *
Elams monograph is lucid and insightful; its scholarship and presentation combine to make it a highly informative and enjoyable read. * The Year's Work in English Studies *
Offers sharply focused observations about the workings of picture in each individual play, especially the construction of pictures via characters imaginations. * Shakespeare Studies *
Elams textured, historically informed, jargon-free readings will persuade his readers of the serious pragmatic and semiotic functions of pictures in Shakespeares plays. * Sederi *
Original, engaging, highly innovative and richly researched, this book makes a valuable contribution to the field as the first interdisciplinary study which provides a concentrated and sustained focus on the use of physical "pictures" in Shakespeare's drama. The readings of the individual plays are breathtakingly deft, a tour de force interweaving of image theory, material culture, performance practice and textual analysis. The depth of the research, the illuminating illustrations and a handy glossary of "Shakespeare's Iconographic Lexicon", make this book a bejewelled cabinet of wonders for the discerning reader, from undergraduate level upwards. -- Dr Chris Laoutaris, Lecturer at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon

Author Bio

Keir Elam is Professor of English Literature at the University of Bologna, Italy, where he is resident member of the Institute for Advanced Studies and evaluator for the Humanities in the University Research Observatory (Osservatorio della Ricerca). He is the editor of the Arden Third Series edition of Twelfth Night.