Radical Tragedy: Religion, Ideology and Power in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Foreword......Page 11
i: September 1914......Page 15
ii: September 2001......Page 17
iii: September 1939......Page 20
iv: Art and Humanism......Page 23
v: Humanism and Materialism......Page 26
vi: Returns......Page 27
vii: Knowledge and Desire......Page 31
Notes......Page 36
Bibliography......Page 38
Introduction to the Second Edition......Page 42
PART I: RADICAL DRAMA: ITS CONTEXTS AND EMERGENCE......Page 104
1 Contexts......Page 106
i: Literary Criticism: Order versus History......Page 108
ii: Ideology, Religion and Renaissance Scepticism......Page 112
iii: Ideology and the Decentring of Man......Page 120
iv: Secularism versus Nihilism......Page 122
v: Censorship......Page 125
vi: Inversion and Misrule......Page 128
2 Emergence: Marston’s Antonio Plays (c. 1599–1601) and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (c. 1601–2)......Page 132
i: Discontinuous Identity (1)......Page 133
ii: Providence and Natural Law (1)......Page 139
iii: Discontinuous Identity (2)......Page 143
iv: Providence and Natural Law (2)......Page 145
v: Ideology and the Absolute......Page 147
vi: Social Contradiction and Discontinuous Identity......Page 150
vii: Renaissance Man versus Decentred Malcontent......Page 152
PART II: STRUCTURE, MIMESIS, PROVIDENCE......Page 154
i: Bradley......Page 156
ii: Archer and Eliot......Page 159
iii: Coherence and Discontinuity......Page 162
iv: Brecht: A Different Reality......Page 166
4 Renaissance Literary Theory: Two Concepts of Mimesis......Page 173
i: Poetry versus History......Page 174
ii: The Fictive and the Real......Page 176
i: Atheism and Religious Scepticism......Page 186
ii: Providentialism and History......Page 190
iii: Organic Providence......Page 193
iv: From Mutability to Cosmic Decay......Page 195
v: Goodman and Elemental Chaos......Page 202
vi: Providence and Protestantism......Page 206
vii: Providence, Decay and the Drama......Page 210
6 Dr Faustus (c. 1589–92): Subversion Through Transgression......Page 212
i: Limit and Transgression......Page 213
ii: Power and the Unitary Soul......Page 219
i: Tragedy, Theology and Cosmic Decay......Page 223
ii: Mustapha: Tragedy as Dislocation......Page 226
i: History, Fate, Providence......Page 237
i: Providence and Parody......Page 242
ii: Desire and Death......Page 246
PART III: MAN DECENTRED......Page 254
10 Subjectivity and Social Process......Page 256
i: Tragedy, Humanism and the Transcendent Subject......Page 259
ii: The Jacobean Displacement of the Subject......Page 261
iii: The Essentialist Tradition: Christianity, Stoicism and Renaissance Humanism......Page 264
iv: Internal Tensions......Page 266
v: Anti-Essentialism in Political Theory and Renaissance Scepticism......Page 272
vi: Renaissance Individualism?......Page 277
i: Shadows and Substance......Page 285
ii: Court Power and Native Noblesse......Page 288
12 King Lear (c. 1605–6) and Essentialist Humanism......Page 292
i: Redemption and Endurance: Two Sides of Essentialist Humanism......Page 294
ii: King Lear: A Materialist Reading......Page 298
iii: The Refusal of Closure......Page 305
13 Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1607): Virtus under Erasure......Page 307
i: Virtus and History......Page 309
ii: Virtus and Realpolitik (1)......Page 310
iii: Honour and Policy......Page 316
iv: Sexuality and Power......Page 318
i: Virtus and Realpolitik (2)......Page 321
ii: Essentialism and Class War......Page 325
i: Religion and State Power......Page 334
ii: The Virtuous and the Vicious......Page 335
iii: Sexual and Social Exploitation......Page 338
iv: The Assertive Woman......Page 342
v: The Dispossessed Intellectual......Page 345
vi: Living Contradictions......Page 347
PART IV: SUBJECTIVITY: IDEALISM VERSUS MATERIALISM......Page 350
16 Beyond Essentialist Humanism......Page 352
i: Origins of the Transcendent Subject......Page 353
ii: Essence and Universal: Enlightenment Transitions......Page 356
iii: Discrimination and Subjectivity......Page 359
iv: Formative Literary Influences: Pope to Eliot......Page 361
v: Existentialism......Page 365
vi: Lawrence, Leavis and Individualism......Page 367
vii: The Decentred Subject......Page 372
Notes......Page 375
Bibliography of Work Cited......Page 393
C......Page 410
H......Page 411
M......Page 412
V......Page 413
K......Page 414
V......Page 415