Late Shakespeare, 1608-1613


http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6878506/?site_locale=en_US

In fourteen specially commissioned chapters by leading Shakespeare scholars from around the globe, Late Shakespeare, 1608–1613 provides an essential re-appraisal of the final phase of Shakespeare's writing life. Arranged for the first time in the best-established chronological sequence, Shakespeare's last seven extant plays are discussed in detail in dedicated chapters, from Pericles to the late co-authored works, King Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. The plays are situated in the context of Shakespeare's financial investments, his focus on the practice of reading, the changing nature of his acting company and the pressing issues of contemporary politics and urban life. The book also goes on to explore the relationship between Shakespeare and his audience and considers the dominant themes in his final works. Analysing and responding to the latest criticism in the field, this volume brings to light a vital re-examination of what it means to discuss 'late Shakespeare'.

Table of Contents

Introduction Andrew J. Power and Rory Loughnane
1. Pericles, Prince of Tyre: Pericles, Prince of Tyre and the appetite for narrative Andrew Hiscock
2. Coriolanus: Coriolanus and the late romances David George
3. Cymbeline: recognition in Cymbeline Raphael Lyne
4. The Winter's Tale: kinetic emblems and memory images in The Winter's Tale William E. Engel
5. The Tempest: 'hush, and be mute': silences in The Tempest Michael Neill
6. King Henry VIII: semi-choric devices and the framework for playgoer response in King Henry VIII Rory Loughnane
7. The Two Noble Kinsmen: Shakespeare's final phase: The Two Noble Kinsmen in its context Sandra Clark
8. Shakespeare: from author to audience to print, 1608–13 Grace Ioppolo
9. Reading strange matter: words and text in Shakespeare's late plays Charlotte Scott
10. Late Shakespeare, late players Andrew J. Power
11. Cities in late Shakespeare Adam Hansen
12. Shakespeare and James I: personal rule and public responsibility Stuart M. Kurland
13. Writing faithfully in a post-confessional world Thomas Betteridge
14. Magic and gender in late Shakespeare Ian McAdam
Afterword Gordon McMullan.
Posted by Mr Rory Loughnane &

Suggested Areas of Interest

"That for which we find words is something already dead in our hearts. There is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking." Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols (1888)

Many of the later quarto texts of Shakespeare's plays boast that they are copies of plays 'latelie Acted'. This conference proposes to investigate things recent, late, and belated in the work of Shakespeare and his later contemporaries. On one level the conference promotes new writing in the field of Shakespeare studies with the papers themselves being lately written. The conference also encourages an investigation of what it means for a work to be late, what happens to a text once the writing is finished, and what implications there are for an author who is writing late in his career or even who is 'late' (i.e. who is published posthumously).

To that end, the conference organisers would welcome papers that include, but are not limited to, the following themes:
The writing process; 'late' trends / events that influence a text or its production; late-authorship; the relationship between the author and the text after the writing is finished; textual ephemera, marginalia, or dedication; authorship and death; bardolatry; anxiety of influence; issues of time, decay, or time-keeping in texts; the afterlife of the text; representations of the afterlife in a text; lost, forgotten, or neglected texts; performance / textual history; the London stages at the end of Shakespeare’s career / after Shakespeare’s death; the closure of the theatres.