Citizen Shakespeare: Freemen and Aliens in the Language of the Plays

Citizen Shakespeare: Freemen and Aliens in the Language of the Plays
ISBN-10
1403981299
ISBN-13
9781403981295
Category
Literary Criticism
Pages
211
Language
English
Published
2005-08-19
Publisher
Springer
Author
J. Archer

Description

Shakespeare was not a citizen of London. But the language of his plays is shot through with the concerns of London 'freemen' and their wives, the diverse commercial class that nevertheless excluded adult immigrants from country towns and northern Europe alike. This book combines London historiography, close reading, and recent theories of citizen subjectivity to demonstrate for the first time that Shakespeare's plays embody citizen and alien identities despite their aristocratic settings. Through three chapters, the book points out where the city shadows the country scenes of the major comedies, shows how London's trades animate the 'civil butchery' of the history plays, ans explains why England's metropolis becomes the fractured Rome of tragedy,

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