Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human"Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" is the culmination of Harold Bloom's life's work in reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. It is his passionate and convincing analysis of the way in which Shakespeare not merely represented human nature as we know it today, but actually created it: before Shakespeare, there was characterization; after Shakespeare, there was character, men and women with highly individual personalities -- Hamlet, Falstaff, Iago, Cleopatra, Macbeth, Rosalind, and Lear, among them. In making his argument, Bloom leads us through a brilliant and comprehensive reading of every one of Shakespeare's plays. According to a "New York Times" report on Shakespeare last year, "more people are watching him, reading him, and studying him than ever before." "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" is a landmark contribution, a book that will be celebrated and read for many years to come. It explains why Shakespeare has remained our most popular playwright for more than four hundred years, and in helping us to understand ourselves through literature, it restores the role of critic to one of central importance to our culture. |
From inside the book
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Contents
Shakespeares Universalism | 1 |
The Comedy of Errors | 21 |
The Taming of the Shrew | 28 |
Copyright | |
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Shakespeare: Invention of the Human: The Invention of the Human Harold Bloom No preview available - 1999 |
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ambivalence Antony and Cleopatra audience authentic Barabas Barnardine Bastard become Ben Jonson Berowne Brutus Caesar Caliban character Christian comedy comic consciousness Cordelia Coriolanus critics Cymbeline death Desdemona drama Dream Duke Edgar Edmund eyes Falstaff and Hamlet father Faulconbridge final Fool genius give Goneril Hal's hath heart Henry human imagination Imogen invention irony Jonson Juliet King Lear Lady lago lago's Lear's Leontes lord Love's Labour's Lost lovers Macbeth madness Malvolio Marlowe Marlowe's Measure for Measure mode moral murder nature never Noble Kinsmen Olivia Othello outrageous parody passion perhaps Pericles personality play play's poet Posthumus pragmatically Prince Prospero Richard Richard III role Roman Romeo Rosalind scene seems sense sexual Shake Shakespeare Shylock Sir John Sonnets speak speare speare's spirit stage sublime Tempest theatrical thee Thersites Theseus thou Timon Titus Andronicus tragedy transcends Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night Ur-Hamlet Venice villain