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Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History from the Restoration to the Present
by Gary Taylor
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (1991-03-07)
ISBN: 0195066790
EAN: 9780195066791
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Paperback: 480 pages
SKU: 00-1NGB-0FG4
Condition: Good
Comments: Softcover shows minor wear. Some underlining and margin notes present. Writing present on last page. Binding is tight. No creasing to spine.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
As an actor, William Shakespeare reinvented himself almost every day. At the height of his career, he often performed in six different plays on six consecutive days. He stopped reinventing himself when he died on April 23, 1616, but, as Gary Taylor tells us in this bold, provocative, irreverent history of Shakespeare's reputation through the ages, we have been reinventing him ever since.
Taylor, who sparked a worldwide controversy in 1985 by announcing his discovery of a "new" Shakespeare poem "Shall I die?," presents a brilliantly argued, wryly humorous discussion of the ways in which society "reinvents" Shakespeare--and to some extent all great literature--to suit its own ends. He reveals how Shakespeare's reputation has benefited from such diverse and unpredictable factors as the dearth of new plays after the Restoration; the decline of tragedy in the eighteenth century, when, as Taylor puts it, "Shakespeare was kept on the menu because he was the only serious dish [the repertoire companies] knew how to cook"; the changing social status of women in the nineteenth century; England's longstanding rivalry with France, which turned Shakespeare into the great advocate of conservative British values; and the current trend in academia toward shockingly unorthodox views, which has turned Shakespeare into the great ally of radical Marxist and feminist critics.
Through the centuries, critics have cited the same Shakespeare--often the very same play--as the supporter of a vast array of world views. Examining each period's method of invoking the Bard's "greatness" to support a series of conflicting values, Taylor questions what actually constitutes greatness. He insists on examining the criteria of each epoch on its own terms in order to demonstrate how literary criticism can often become the most telling form of social commentary. Reinventing Shakespeare offers nothing less than a major reevaluation of Shakespeare, his writing, his place in world history, and the very bases of aesthetic judgment.
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Customer Reviews
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A well-written, comprehensive introduction
Rating  (5)
Date: 2000-01-10
6 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
Taylor's survey of Shakespearean adaptations and performance is engagingly written, filled with little revealing details, and opinionated without being biased. It's certainly NOT a Bard-bashing book, though it's not reverent in its discussions of Shakespeare. It's the place to start if you're interested in a one-volume history of Shakespearean adaptation. The last section of the book, on contemporary Shakespeare and written in an arch tone, isn't as interesting, at least to a non-academic. And one might argue that the book is rather Euro-centric: see Dennis Kennedy's Foreign Shakespeare as a good supplement. Even so, it's an essential book for any person interested in Shakespeare and cultural change. You'll think differently about Shakespeare after reading it.
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Scholar at war with himself
Rating  (2)
Date: 1998-11-14
12 out of 25 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book on Shakespeare is the obvious result of a lot research from an author who knows his subject as well as anyone. Yet it is a disappointing book as Taylor is simply at war with himself. After a lifetime studying Shakespeare, he attempts to remove from the center of the Canon- with a capital C. He fails. It is a closely argued book, but quite often during the course of it you felt that you were hearing only one side of the debate. He quotes every whine or weaze at Shakespeare that he can find. For example, he quotes Tolstoy and his famous dislike of the bard. Not mentioning that he hated Lear because he could see direct parallels in his own life. He quotes Shaw, but does not mention that he hated Shakespeare, partly, because he was considered to be the better playwright. Something Shaw could not abide. Taylor in his desperation to attack Shakespeare uses any weapon at his disposal, including a motley collection of post modern whines and textual gripes. No one is allowed to be great anymore and while modern English Literature criticism is hell bent on destroying the pleasure of reading and watching Shakespeare, people will continue to do so as academics like Taylor become more and more remote from what they are writing about. Read this and then Bloom for some sensible writing about Shakespeare. Taylor is at war with himself, and it is a mess of a book.
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