The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy

This revised and updated Companion acquaints the student reader with the forms, contexts, critical and theatrical lives of the ten plays considered to be Shakespeare's tragedies. Thirteen essays, written by leading scholars in Britain and North America, address the ways in which Shakespearean tragedy originated, developed and diversified, as well as how it has fared on stage, as text and in criticism. Topics covered include the literary precursors of Shakespeare's tragedies, cultural backgrounds, sub-genres and receptions of the plays. The book examines the four major tragedies and, in addition, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens. Essays from the first edition have been fully revised to reflect the most up-to-date scholarship; the bibliography has been extensively updated; and four new chapters have been added, discussing Shakespearean form, Shakespeare and philosophy, Shakespeare's tragedies in performance, and Shakespeare and religion.

Preface to the second edition; 1. What is a Shakespearean tragedy? Colin Burrow; 2. The language of tragedy Russ McDonald; 3. Tragedy in Shakespeare's career David Bevington; 4. Shakespearean tragedy printed and performed Michael Warren; 5. Religion and Shakespearean tragedy Claire McEachern; 6. Tragedy and political authority Michael Hattaway; 7. Gender and family Catherine Belsey; 8. The tragic subject and its passions Gail Kern Paster; 9. Tragedies of revenge and ambition Robert N. Watson; 10. Shakespeare's tragedies of love Catherine Bates; 11. Shakespeare's classical tragedies Coppélia Kahn; 12. Why think about Shakespearean tragedy today? Paul A. Kottman; 13. Shakespeare's tragedies in performance Lucy Munro.

Claire McEachern is Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of The Poetics of English Nationhood, 1590–1612 (1996), co-editor (with Debora Shuger) of Religion and Culture in the English Renaissance (1997) and editor of the Arden 3 Much Ado About Nothing, as well as several other Shakespeare plays for various series.