Believing in Shakespeare : studies in longing / Claire McEachern, University of California, Los Angeles.

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

xii, 324 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

"Believing in Shakespeare Studies in Longing -- This ground breaking and accessible study explores the connections between the English Reformation's impact on the belief in eternal salvation and how it affected ways of believing in the plays of Shakespeare. Claire McEachern examines the new and better faith that Protestantism imagined for itself, a faith in which scepticism did not erode belief, but worked to substantiate it in ways that were both affectively positive and empirically positivist. Concluding with in-depth readings of Richard II, King Lear and The Tempest, the book represents a markedly fresh intervention in the topic of Shakespeare and religion. With great originality, McEachern argues that the English reception of the Calvinist imperative to 'know with' God allowed the very nature of literary involvement to change, transforming feeling for a character into feeling with one" -- Provided by publisher.

English

July 25, 2018

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-319) and index.