Synopses & Reviews
Adopted at more than 1,000 colleges and universities, Bedford/St. Martin's innovative Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism series has introduced more than a quarter of a million students to literary theory and earned enthusiastic praise nationwide. Along with an authoritative text of a major literary work, each volume presents critical essays, selected or prepared especially for students, that approach the work from several contemporary critical perspectives, such as gender criticism and cultural studies. Each essay is accompanied by an introduction (with bibliography) to the history, principles, and practice of its critical perspective. Every volume also surveys the biographical, historical, and critical contexts of the literary work and concludes with a glossary of critical terms. New editions reprint cultural documents that contextualize the literary works and feature essays that show how critical perspectives can be combined.
Table of Contents
About the Series About This Volume
PART I. HAMLET: THE COMPLETE TEXT
Introduction: Biographical and Historical Contexts
The Complete Text [1974 text, with notes, from The Riverside Shakespeare, edited by G. Blakemore Evans]
Notes on the Text
Textual Notes
PART II. HAMLET: A CASE STUDY IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM
A Critical History of Hamlet
Feminist Criticism and Hamlet
What Is Feminist Criticism?
Feminist Criticism: Selected Bibliography
A Feminist Perspective:
Elaine Showalter, Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism
Psychoanalytic Criticism and Hamlet
What Is Psychoanalytic Criticism?
Psychoanalytic Criticism: A Selected Bibliography
A Psychoanalytic Perspective:
Janet Adelman, "Man and Wife Is One Flesh": Hamlet and the Confrontation with the Maternal Body
Deconstruction and Hamlet
What Is Deconstruction?
Deconstruction: A Selected Bibliography
A Deconstructionist Perspective:
Marjorie Garber, Hamlet: Giving Up the Ghost
Marxist Criticism and Hamlet
What Is Marxist Criticism?
Marxist Criticism: A Selected Bibliography
A Marxist Perspective:
Michael D. Bristol, "Funeral-Bak'd-Meats": Carnival and the Carnivalesque in Hamlet
New Historicism and Hamlet
What Is New Historicism?
New Historicism: A Selected Bibliography
A New Historicist Perspective:
Karin S. Coddon, "Suche Strange Desygns": Madness, Subjectivity, and Treason in Hamlet and Elizabethan Culture
Glossary of Critical and Theoretical Terms
About the Contributors