French Reflections in the Shakespearean Tragic: Three Case Studies - Softcover

Richard Hillman broadens the field of known sources by moving from 'scraps' of plot and language' to more diffuse philosophical or political influences on three characters, each the product of an 'intertextual bricolage' which accounts for Shakespeare's 'ungrammaticalities'... One emerges quite dazzled by the extent of Hillman's learning. Dominique Goy-Blanquet, Times Literary Supplement, 19th October 2012 Hillman breathes renewed life into multiple diverse early modern French texts, illuminating their resonances with mostly canonical English works... There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from Hillman's deep particular research in French sources-work that will undoubtedly inspire future inquiry. Hillman illuminates another elusive corner of Shakespeare's creative process with this study, representing another incremental - but certainly important - advancement in Shakespearean scholarship. -- .

Richard Hillman pursues his exploration of English tragedy in relation to France with a frank concentration on Shakespeare. Instead of focusing on common paradigms, he sets out to theorise more abstract tragic qualities (such as nostalgia, futility and heroism), but again with reference to specific French texts and contexts. Three manifestations of the 'Shakespearean tragic' are singled out: Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra and All's Well That Ends Well, a comedy with melancholic overtones whose French setting is shown to be richly significant. Hillman brings to bear on each of these central works a cluster of French intertextual echoes, sometimes literary in origin (whether dramatic or otherwise), sometimes involving historical texts, memoirs or contemporary political documents which have no obvious connection with the plays but prove capable of enriching interpretation of them. Some of this material is quite obscure, at least to literary scholars, and one effect is to suggest the surprising degree to which segments of the English theatre-going public would have responded to the evocation of facts, images and ideas emanating from France in a variety of forms. All in all, this book constitutes a notable advance in Shakespeare criticism, both methodologically and in substance. Its interdisciplinary approach will make it of interest not only to scholars specialising in early modern English theatre, but also to both specialists and students concerned with the circulation of information and the production of meaning within early modern European culture.