TA - Theatre Arts Research Guide

Using a variety of approaches, from postcolonialism and New Historicism to psychoanalysis and gender studies, the international contributors to Hamlet: New Critical Essays contribute major new interpretations on the conception and writing, editing, and cultural productions of Hamlet. This book is the most up-to-date and comprehensive critical analysis available of one of Shakespeare's best-known and most engaging plays.

A new translation of Calderón's most popular mystery.

Aristophanes is astonishingly ahead of his time in this, probably his greatest and most enduring comedy.

Medea, in which a spurned woman takes revenge upon her lover by killing her children, is one of the most shocking of all the Greek tragedies. Dominating the play is Medea herself, a towering figure who demonstrates Euripides' unusual willingness to give voice to a woman's case. Alcestis, a tragicomedy, is based on a magical myth in which Death is overcome, and The Children of Heracles examines conflict between might and right, while Hippolytus deals with self-destructive integrity and moral dilemmas. These plays show Euripides transforming awesome figures of Greek myths into recognizable, fallible human beings.John Davie's accessible prose translation is accompanied by a general introduction and individual prefaces to each play.

The plays collected in this volume illustrate Moliere's broad range of comic devices, from satire and farce to slapstick and wordplay. In Tartuffe and The Doctor Despite Himself, Moliere mocks those taken in by a religious hypocrite and a bogus physician, while Such Foolish Affected Ladies and Those Learned Ladies ridicule the excessive refinement of the Parisian smart set. And in The Misanthrope and The Would-Be Gentleman, Moliere warns us of the dangers of obsession and intolerance. Exposing duplicity, snobbery and hypocrisy, his plays are masterly studies in the absurdities of human nature.

Aphra Behn (1640-89) was both successful and controversial in her own lifetime; her achievements are now recognized less equivocally and her plays, often revived, demonstrate wit, compassion and remarkable range.

In this book, Stone effects a return to gender, after many years of neglect by Twenty-First-Century critics, via a methodology of close reading that foregrounds moments of sexual decentering and disequilibrium within the text and in the interstices of the dialogue between Shakespeare and his critics. Issues addressed range from the cross dressing of Viola and Imogen to the cross gartering of Malvolio, the sound of "un" and the uncanny lyric narcissism of Richard II, Hamlet "s misogyny, androgyny, and the poison of marital/political "union," Othello "s fears of impotence, rumors of Antony "s emasculation versus the militant yet nurturing triumphalism of Cleopatra "s suicide, and Posthumus "s hysterical reaction to the "woman "s part" in himself and his compensatory fantasies of parthenogenesis.

-- User's guide -- A comprehensive biography of the playwright -- Detailed plot summaries of each play -- Extracts from important critical essays that examine important aspects of each work -- A complete bibliography of the writer's plays -- A list of critical works about the playwright and his works -- An index of themes and ideas covered in the plays