The Anatomy of Insults in Shakespeare”s World explores Shakespeare”s complex art of insults and shows how the playwright set abusive words at the heart of many of his plays. It provides valuable insights on a key aspect of Shakespeare”s work that has been little explored to date. Focusing on the most memorable scenes of insult, abusive characters and insulting effects in the plays, the volume shifts how readers understand and read Shakespeare”s insults.
Chapters analyze the spectacular rhetoric of insult in
Henry IV,
Troilus and Cressida and
Timon of Athens; the ”skirmishes of wit” in
Much Ado about Nothing and
A Midsummer Night”s Dream; insult and duelling codes in
Romeo and Juliet,
As You Like It and
Twelfth Night, the complex relationships between slander and insult in
Much Ado about Nothing and
Measure for Measure;
the taming of the tongue in
Richard III and
The Taming of the Shrew, the trauma of insults in
Othello,
The Merchant of Venice and
Cymbeline and insult beyond words in
Henry V and
King lear.
Grasping insult as a specific speech act, the volume explores the issues of verbal violence and verbal shields and the importance of reception and interpretation in matters of insult. It offers a panorama of the Elizabethan politics of insult and redefines Shakespeare”s drama as a theatre of insults.