Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War

Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War
ISBN-10
1474427472
ISBN-13
9781474427470
Category
Literary Criticism
Pages
321
Language
English
Published
2018-09-17
Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Author
Patrick Gray

Description

Explores Shakespeare's representation of the failure of democracy in ancient Rome This book introduces Shakespeare as a historian of ancient Rome alongside figures such as Sallust, Cicero, St Augustine, Machiavelli, Gibbon, Hegel and Nietzsche. It considers Shakespeare's place in the history of concepts of selfhood and reflects on his sympathy for Christianity, in light of his reception of medieval Biblical drama, as well as his allusions to the New Testament. Shakespeare's critique of Romanitas anticipates concerns about secularisation, individualism and liberalism shared by philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel and Patrick Deneen.

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