The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare

by Margreta de Grazia (Editor), Stanley Wells (Editor)

"An international team of prominent scholars provides a broadly cultural approach to the chief literary, performative, and historical aspects of Shakespeare's work. They bring the latest scholarship to bear on traditional subjects of Shakespeare studies, such as biography, the transmission of the texts, the main dramatic and poetic genres, the stage in Shakespeare's time, and the history of criticism and performance. In addition, authors engage with more recently defined topics: gender and sexuality, Shakespeare on film, the presence of foreigners in Shakespeare's England, and his impact on other cultures. Helpful reference features include chronologies of the life and works, illustrations, detailed reading lists, and a bibliographical essay."--BOOK JACKET.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Reference, Literary Criticism, Poetry, Essays, Literature

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Margreta de Grazia received her PhD in English from Princeton with a specialization in Renaissance literature. Her first book Shakespeare Verbatim (Oxford, 1991) traces the emergence of Shakespeare as a modern author from late eighteenth-century editorial imperatives. Her second book, Hamlet without Hamlet (Cambridge, 2007), awarded both the Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize and the Elizabeth Dietz Award, demonstrates how the modern tradition of psychologizing Hamlet has effaced both the play's and the protagonist's preoccupation with land and entitlement.

She has also co-edited Subject and Object in Renaissance Culture (Cambridge, 1996) with Maureen Quilligan and Peter Stallybrass and both the Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare (Cambridge, 2001) and the New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare (2010) with Stanley Wells. Her interests at present include Shakespeare as an historical and cultural phenomenon, early modern notions of subjectivity and authorship, the production and ownership of early modern texts, and the chronologizing, periodizing, and secularizing of Shakespeare.

She has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Humanities Center, and the Guggenheim Foundation and is presently the Sheli Z. and Burton X. Rosenberg Professor of the Humanities. In 2005 she received the Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching and in 2010, the Provost’s Award for Distinguished Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring.

(from https://www.english.upenn.edu/People/...)

Reviews

[Ian Lepine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fundamental book for anyone that wants to undertake the onerous task of writing about Shakespeare in an academic contest whether at an undergraduate or graduate level. This Cambridge Companion does not just constitute a general introduction to Shakespeare and Shakespeare studies, but in fact, at times delves into some very deep waters. All of the academics involved in this edition have done a marvelous job but I believe that the following essays are too extraordinary not to mention:

The reproduction of Shakespeare’s texts by Barbara A. Mowat

Playhouses, players, and playgoers in Shakespeare’s time by John H. Astington

Shakespeare on the page and the stage by Michael Dobson

Apart from these, the review essays on Shakespeare criticism are fundamental to get an overview of the critical panorama of the last 400 years.

[Nick Wellings · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, seriously: No bibliography?

Other than that: solid introduction to Shakespeare. We get good pieces on the (relatively few) facts we do know about his life, essays about his influences and how they informed his own creations. Bits about Shakespeare as acted from then until now, and Shakespeare in 20th Century, including an essay of Shakespeare on film. All straightforward to read and understand. No earth shattering conclusions or ideas, just a nice primer for anyone interested in the man and his works.

And yes, it lost a star because of the 'no bibliography' problem. Even some texts consolidated from each author's essays would have been nice!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read: Chs. 1, 14, 9, 11, 3, 4, 10, 8, 6, 16, 5, 2, 12, 13, 15, 18

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are reading this for literary studies, just read the chapter on Shakespeare's writing style and the third and penultimate chapters on the history of Shakespeare criticism. The rest is just background and historical information. Good to know, but redundant for college students facing course requirements

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a good introduction to Shakespeare, the essays are overly detailed and not accessible for the beginner. The language is complicated at times and its academic style and tone disengages you. Though there are some positives to take away, the essay 'Shakespeare and the Craft of Language' by Margreta de Grazia had some useful and illuminating information. Grazia writes, 'if frequency of usage by any indication, un- was Shakespeare's favourite prefix. Perhaps he was fascinated by how two letters can negate a word and yet still leave it literally intact' (p54). Shakespeare was fascinated by language. In the essay 'The Genres of Shakespeare's Plays' Susan Snyder writes 'John Heminges and Henry Condell categorised them in the table of contents under Comedies, Histories and Tragedies (p83). Shakespeare never listed his plays into chronological order and did not group them into genres, he simply wrote them and did not categorize them into any specific genre. They are in the genres they are today due to Heminges and Condell who were trying to make the plays more accessible and readable for the general public. Therefore, is Julius Caesar really meant to be a tragedy? is that the genre Shakespeare, the man himself, the author, would have put it in? We will never know and today when viewing a performance of Caesar, people think they are viewing a tragedy because that is what they have been taught, that is the idea that has become embedded in culture without people realising that it wasn't Shakespeare who called it a tragedy. And the two essays on criticism do list a lot of reputable books on Shakespeare to read but they are all very outdated and that is due to the fact The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare itself is outdated. Calling Cambridge and Stanley Wells, get yourselves into gear and please give us an up-to-date version of The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

My interest in drama, and Shakespeare in particular, has been reawakened by my vacation trips to the Utah Shakespeare Festival for the past three years. This book contains nineteen essays on various general aspects of Shakespeare. The series has separate companions on each of Shakespeare's genres, so those were not covered here, except for one essay on his poetry, nor were there essays on specific works. The book was quite interesting in terms of indicating the present concerns of Shakespeare studies, which are rather different from what they were when I was in school in the heyday of "New Criticism". As one would expect, there was an essay on his life, and one of textual questions; naturally, in today's postmodern climate there were articles on genre definition, gender, and ethnic issues. Almost a third of the essays were concerned with the "afterlife" of the plays, that is to say their performance traditions from his time through the end of the twentieth century, the development of Shakespeare criticism, Shakespeare reception in non-English speaking countries, adaptations of Shakespeare on film, etc. Most of the essays were reasonable informative.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of my Shakespeare reference collection, which includes:

A Companion to Shakespeare
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare
Essential Shakespeare Handbook
Imagining Shakespeare
Northrop Frye on Shakespeare
Shakespeare After All
Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide
Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare

For the plays I’ve read, I’ve also read the relevant sections in these reference books. When I pick up the next play in my Shakespeare reading list, I start by reading the relevant section in the reference books, and also to refer back when necessary to get the background, history of performance and literary criticism.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"His words are a very fantastical banquet."* And even more so when you realize how many were coined by him! Not just zounds and forsooth but courtship, embrace, puppy dog and watch dog. And the phrases! It's Greek to me, and salad days, and tower of strength or in a pickle. It's just amazing. This wonderful collection of essays also explains where Shakespeare got his learning and explores the controversy over who wrote what.
*Did you guess? It's from Much Ado About Nothing, Act II

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cambridge Companions are usually pretty good. This one only had one essay that really suited what I'm studying, but there are plenty of essays about all sorts of things, especially essays that help to contextualise Shakespeare and his plays.

[Amy Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting and informational. If you want to know about Shakespeare and how he grew in pop culture, this would definitely be a good reference.