Re-Humanising Shakespeare

Can Shakespeare help us with the question of how to live? Re Humanising Shakespeare argues that although Shakespeare strikingly dramatizes various kinds of uncertainty and scepticism, including scepticism about what it is to be human, his work can still serve as as rich source of existential wisdom and guidance. Revised throughout, this edition includes: a new introduction which focuses more attention on what is specific to literature's treatment of the human (as epitomised by Shakespeare); a section drawing on new work on literary and dramatic genres as different ways of attending to human life; a revised chapter on the history plays; and a reading of King Lear. Blending theory and critical resources with close analysis of the plays, this book makes provocative reading for all those interested in Shakespeare, ethics, human being and questions of literary value. It is revised throughout and includes a new section on genre, as well as discussion of King Lear. It offers new ways of understanding literature's distinctive treatment of the human. It shows through detailed readings of the plays how Shakespeare both unsettles and reclaims ideas about being human. It provides a clear account of modernity which illuminates the relationship between critical theory, scepticism and literary humanism. It includes close readings of a number of plays including Hamlet, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, Coriolanus and Macbeth.