Emma Smith 
Shakespeare’s Histories [PDF ebook] 

This Guide steers students through four centuries of
critical writing on Shakespeare’s history plays, enhancing
their enjoyment and broadening their critical repertoire.

* * Guides students through four centuries of critical writing on
Shakespeare’s history plays.

* Covers both significant early views and recent critical
interventions.

* Substantial editorial material links the articles and places
them in context.

* Annotated suggestions for further reading allow students to
investigate further.

Table of Content

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

1. The Development of Criticism of Shakespeare’s
Histories:.

2. Genre:.

Overview.

Marjorie Garber, ‘Descanting on Deformity: Richard
III and the Shape of History’.

Paola Pugliatti, ‘Time, Space and the Instability of
History in the Henry IV sequence’.

3. Language:.

Overview.

Harry Berger, ‘Psychoanalysing the Shakespeare text: The
first three scenes of the Henriad’.

Sandra Fischer, ‘He Means to Pay’: Value and
Metaphor in the Lancastrian Tetralogy.

4. Gender and Sexuality:.

Overview.

Leah Marcus, ‘Elizabeth’.

Jean Howard and Phyllis Rackin, ‘King John’.

5. History and Politics:.

Overview.

Andrew Murphy, ‘Shakespeare’s Irish
History’.

Graham Holderness, ‘What Ish My Nation?’ Shakespeare
and National Identities.

6. Performance:.

Overview.

Margaret Shewring, ‘In the Context of English
History’.

Alan Dessen, ‘Stagecraft and Imagery in
Shakespeare’s Henry VI’.

Index

About the author

Emma Smith is Fellow of Hertford College and Lecturer in English at Oxford University. Her publications include Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedie (ed. 1998) and Shakespeare in Production: Henry V (2000), as well as two other edited volumes in the Blackwell Guides to Criticism series: Shakespeare’s Comedies (2004) and Shakespeare’s Tragedies (2004)