| Title | : | Shakespeare's Humanism |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0521824389 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780521824385 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 290 |
| Publication | : | First published January 16, 2005 |
Arguing that belief in a universal human nature was as important to Shakespeare as to every other Renaissance writer, this book questions the central principle of postmodern Shakespeare criticism. Postmodernists insist that the notion of a defining human essence was alien to Shakespeare and his contemporaries and as radical anti-essentialists, the Elizabethans were, in effect, postmodernists before their time. Challenging this claim, this book demonstrates that for Shakespeare, as for every other humanist writer in this period, the key to all wise action was 'the knowledge of our selves and our human condition.'
Shakespeare's Humanism Reviews
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This book should be renamed, because at times it seems that Wells is dwelling more on Foucault and postmodernism in comparison to Shakespeare himself. There are, of course, some really good analyses, but then one would have to look very hard (and also to get over the confusion over discussions of Foucault's work) to actually perceive them.
