Inscribing the Time: Shakespeare and the End of Elizabethan England

by Eric S. Mallin

Overview

Combining the resources of new historicism, feminism, and postmodern textual analysis, Eric Mallin reveals how contemporary pressures left their marks on three Shakespeare plays written at the end of Elizabeth's reign. Close attention to the language of Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night reveals the ways the plays echo the events and anxieties that accompanied the beginning of the seventeenth century. Troilus reflects the rebellion of the Earl of Essex and the failure of the courtly, chivalric style. Hamlet resonates with the danger of the bubonic plague and the difficult succession history of James I. Twelfth Night is imbued with nostalgia for an earlier period of Elizabeth's rule, when her control over religious and erotic affairs seemed more secure.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1995.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520332959
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/15/2023
Series:	The New Historicism: Studies in Cultural Poetics , #33
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Eric S. Mallin is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin.

Editorial Reviews

Draws on new historicism, feminism, and postmodernism to read three of Shakespeare's plays against specific crises of his time, all relating to the impending death of Good Queen Bess and the sense that an era was ending. Troilus reflects the rebellion of the Earl of Essex; Hamlet fear of the bubonic plague and a difficult succession; and Twelfth Night the nostalgia for when Elizabeth controlled the religious and erotic affairs of the nation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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