This enticing resource is written by a notable scholar, and includes an insightful introduction, a chronological timeline of the life and work of Shakespeare, and a list of his contemporaries. His work is looked at in the view of cultural and historical context of his time. This handy book is perfect for the undergraduates in the program because it is easy to read and highly accessible. Students will gain access into scholars view on the culture in which Shakespeare wrote his work.
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Sousa, Geraldo U. At Home in Shakespeare's Tragedies. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2010. ISBN 9789754668862, $99.95.
Sousa's work studies the symbolic connotations of the homes in for of Shakespeare's major tragedies, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear. He examines the origins and courses of tragedy as they relate to and impact the virtual and imagined homes in Shakespeare's plays. This resource will be of great use to students in many of the Shakespeare course especially the Shakespeare's tragedy course. It will give students a new view on how places are conducted in Shakespeare's play and how their existence is as important as some of the characters.
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Kemp, Theresa D. Women in the Age of Shakespeare. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood Press, 2010. 9780313343049, $65.00.
This work is separated into six sections: women in classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, women in Shakespeare's world, women in Shakespeare's works, Shakespearean women in performance, scholarship and criticism, and primary documents. It discusses more than a dozen of Shakespeare's plays and the final chapter includes a handy glossary of terms. This resource would be a great reference for students in many Shakespeare classes, possibly even a required book for the Women in Shakespeare class.
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Scott, Mark W. Shakespeare for Students: Critical Interpretations of As You Like It, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, the Merchant of Venice, a Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. $353.00
This three volume set includes plot summaries for Shakespeare's works along with literary criticism. It is arranged by alphabetical order and also contains topics such as different themes in his works. Within the major entries on Shakespeare's plays and poems, this resource provides extras such as "What Do I Read Next?", "Compare and Contrast", and "Topics for Further Study." This source is crucial to students as a guide to all of Shakespeare's works.
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Hester, John. Performing Shakespeare. Ramsbury: Crowood, 2008. $34.95
Hester's work provides written explication of performance methodology and technique in the performance of Shakespeare plays. Voice, movement, verse, character study, interpretation, and ensemble bonding are each treated in distinctive chapters, with exercises. It includes colored photographs of recent English performances. This work will be beneficial to teaching students the methods of acting out Shakespeare plays and will help them plan their own performances that are required in many of the classes.
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Rothwell, Kenneth S. A History of Shakespeare on Screen: A Century of Film and Television. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. $59.95.
This resource covers all films of Shakespeare's plays from the earliest ones in the 20th century to present day. It also includes films that make any sort of reference to Shakespeare and retellings of his plays. He includes British and American films and television productions as well as films by directors such as Girgori Kozintsev, Akira Kurosawa, and Jean-Luc Godard. Students will find this resource to contain everything they might need to know about Shakespeare films for their class needs or for pure interest.
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Ryan, Kiernan. Shakespeare's Comedies. Basingstoke [England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. ISBN 9780333599310, $80.00
Ryan focuses on 10 of Shakespeare's major comedies and introduces each play on its own terms, paying particular attention to how the language of obscure comic exchanges contributes to important thematic patterns. He omits footnotes and recent scholarship making his work completely original and different than anything else published on the topic. Students will be exposed to ideas and implications that they had not been previously and they will find this work to be highly useful for the Shakespeare Comedies course.
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Crystal, David. 'think on My Words': Exploring Shakespeare's Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. $19.99.
Crystal, very aptly, discusses textual transmission of the plays; reviews 16th- and 17th-century graphology; explains Shakespeare's use of punctuation; provides insight into the sounds of Shakespeare's language; and details Shakespeare's vocabulary and grammar. It is accessible to all readers regardless of experience with Shakespeare. This will definitely be beneficial to students in the Intro to Shakespeare courses, as well as many of the other ones, as it helps develop a sense of understanding what Shakespeare is trying to communicate that might be lost on people today.
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Nuttall, A D. Shakespeare the Thinker. New Haven [Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. $30.00.
This intriguing resource's contents include: To the death of Marlowe -- Learning not to run -- The major histories -- Stoics and sceptics -- Strong women, weaker men -- The moralist -- How character may be formed -- Shrinking and growing -- The last plays. Unlike many Shakespeare historians, Nuttall does not limit comparing Shakespeare's writing to cliches of the times. This resource will be helpful for students studying the Shakespeare minor because it offers insight never heard before. It takes simply reading Shakespeare's works to the next level of understanding.
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Wells, Stanley W. Shakespeare: For All Time. London: Macmillan, 2002. $40.00
Wells' work draws on discussion of Shakespeare as a poet, dramatist, and man to reflect on his lifetime. This resource looks at how Shakespeare saw man in relation to not only others but to the universe. He shows the reader how Shakespeare went from writing from just the Elizabethan era, to being relevant in current literature and media today. Students will find this reading not only interesting and engaging, but relevant to class discussions. It will also provide material important for paper topics.
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