Vision and Rhetoric in Shakespeare: Looking through Language

by A. Thorne

Overview

This major new interdisciplinary study argues that Shakespeare exploited long-established connections between vision, space and language in order to construct rhetorical equivalents for visual perspective. Through a detailed comparison of art and poetic theory in Italy and England, Thorne shows how perspective was appropriated by English writers, who reinterpreted it to suit their own literary concerns and cultural context. Focusing on five Shakespearean plays, she situates their preoccupation with issues of viewpoint in relation to a range of artistic forms and topics from miniatures to masques.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333659397
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/01/2000
Edition description:	2000
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alison Thorne is Lecturer in English Studies at the University of Strathclyde.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Bibliographical Note Preface Alberti, As You Like It and the Process of Invention English Beholders and the Art of Perspective Ut Pictura Poesis and the Rhetoric of Perspective Hamlet and the Art of Looking Diversely on the Self Troilus and Cressida , 'Imagin'd Worth' and the 'Bifold Authority' of Anamorphosis Antony and Cleopatra and the Art of Dislimning The Tempest and the Art of Masque Endnotes Selected Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'There is much to admire in Vision and Rhetoric in Shakespeare, especially the chapter on Hamlet.' - Times Literarary Supplement

'...a scrupulously argued book...an extensive analysis of English and Italian aesthetic theory.' - Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

Thorne (Renaissance literature and literary theory, the University of Strathclyde) contends that Shakespeare's preoccupation with issues of viewpoint needs to be understood in the context of the visual and rhetorical culture of his day. She investigates the attitude of Shakespeare and his contemporaries to the Italianate device of pictorial perspective, and shows, through a comparison of Italian and English aesthetic theory, that this device was transformed to suit the needs of a very different cultural milieu. She gives detailed readings of five Shakespearean plays, locating their treatment of viewpoint in relation to various artistic forms. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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