Shakespeare's Humanism

Arguing that belief in a universal human nature was as important to Shakespeare as to every other Renaissance writer, this book questions the central principle of postmodern Shakespeare criticism. Postmodernists insist that the notion of a defining human essence was alien to Shakespeare and his contemporaries and as radical anti-essentialists, the Elizabethans were, in effect, postmodernists before their time. Challenging this claim, this book demonstrates that for Shakespeare, as for every other humanist writer in this period, the key to all wise action was 'the knowledge of our selves and our human condition.'

Author: Robin Headlam Wells
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 04/02/2009
Pages: 292
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.66d
ISBN: 9780521107235

About the Author
Headlam Wells, Robin: - Robin Headlam Wells is Professor of English Literature and Director of the Centre for Research in Renaissance Studies at Roehampton University, London. His books include Elizabethan Mythologies (Cambridge, 1994) and Shakespeare on Masculinity (Cambridge, 2000).

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