Immagine dell'autore.

Marjorie Garber

Autore di Shakespeare after All

29+ opere 2,560 membri 27 recensioni 4 preferito

Sull'Autore

Marjorie Garber is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. Her many books include Loaded Words (Fordham); Symptoms of Culture; Quotation Marks; Shakespeare After All; Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety; and The Use mostra altro and Abuse of Literature. mostra meno
Fonte dell'immagine: Photo by Jodi Hilton, for the New York Times

Opere di Marjorie Garber

Shakespeare after All (2005) 743 copie
Dog Love (1996) 91 copie
Academic Instincts (1680) 86 copie
Symptoms of Culture (1998) 50 copie
The Medusa Reader (Culture Work) (2003) — A cura di — 43 copie
Patronizing the Arts (2008) 35 copie
Quotation Marks (2002) 34 copie

Opere correlate

Amleto (1603)alcune edizioni30,791 copie
The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (1993) — Collaboratore — 408 copie
Historia de la monja alférez escrita por ella misma (1829) — Prefazione, alcune edizioni347 copie
Staging the Renaissance (1991) — Collaboratore — 75 copie
Shakespeare and the editorial tradition (1999) — Collaboratore — 3 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Utenti

Recensioni

Really rather good, although - as with so many books of this type - its target audience is a little ... vague.

In terms of accessibility for a general reader, Garber gives us a neat precis of Shakespeare's life and times, followed by analyses of all the plays in the canon. No play misses out, and all are treated fairly. At the same time, this is not an "introduction to Shakespeare", no matter what the blurb may try to sell you. All of the chapters assume at least some familiarity with the play in question, or are obscure enough about plot that you'd need to have some detail to begin with. This is not an account of the play's sources, history, or fate on the stage and screen; it's a popular academic treatise. With that said, if you're building up an amateur's Shakespeare library, this is an interesting read. What may be frustrating is an inevitability: there is so much to talk about with each play that, like most books of "essays", Garber tends to pick a few points about each play and then discuss them. This is not anything like a comprehensive overview (after all, most chapters are about 30 pages), but it tackles some of the key questions academics and directors ask about each work.

For the academic reader, I'm not sure how I feel. It seems as if Garber got the commission for the book by promising a general introduction, but she can't quite keep her intelligence at bay. And, hey, I'm not complaining; her insights are valid and well-written. Unlike most Shakespeare writers, I almost never feel as if she's wandering down a rabbit-hole of philosophical ramblings. No, Garber's analyses are - although decidedly deskbound - certainly drawn from real examination of the plays in the context of William Shakespeare's time. There are a few niggles depending on your taste (for me, I dislike that old-school scholar thing of describing a character using dashes, e.g. "Lear is her father-king"), but each to their own.

The challenge is that I'm not sure if the book unites the two worlds very well. Some of the chapters are quite high-minded, and reveal little to the general reader about the play. At the same time, there were very few surprises in the book for me (and thus, I'd assume, even fewer for the full-time Shakespeare academic). It doesn't seem as if Garber is really adding to the hefty discussion on the Bard, but nor is she a Richard Dawkins, able to illuminate a fascinating-but-niche world for the general public.

I should note this is a positive review, indeed a 5-star review (well, 4.6) - in part because I admire Garber's writing, her intelligence, and her views, and in part because as a Shakespeare lover, I was engaged on every single damn page. I heartily recommend this book to people in an "in-between" stage of Shakespeare scholarship, but I'd champion the great populists like Stephen Greenblatt and Stanley Wells for those looking to get their head around the plays in an intellectual-but-understandable way.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
therebelprince | 9 altre recensioni | Oct 24, 2023 |
Garber, Marjorie. Shakespeare After All. Anchor, 2005.
I have been reading at Shakespeare After All for almost a year—a chapter now and then, especially if I had a chance to read or view one of the plays. So, I may have missed any general argument Marjorie Garber was making. But play by play, the discussions were engaging and insightful. She was especially good on Lear and Anthony and Cleopatra. One reviewer compared the book to the work of A. C. Bradley. Yes, but of course much more current. 4 stars.… (altro)
 
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Tom-e | 9 altre recensioni | Apr 1, 2023 |
Word to the wise, have a dictonary handy when reading this one. Althought I liked the premise, the idea that the value of literature is in the questions it asks and the thinking in requires, I felt she wandered around quite a bit. I found that she expected a basis of knowledge that many a lay person would not have. I just wish spoke to her intended audience, the lay reader, in a less formal, academic way.
 
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Colleen5096 | 4 altre recensioni | Oct 29, 2020 |
Bisexuality in literature, history, boarding schools, psychology, biology... This book makes the invisible and marginialized visible. Every chapter added more to my list of books I need to read (and I've even gotten around to a few of them). It's definitely one I mean to re-read; I suffered informational overload the first time through.
1 vota
Segnalato
akaGingerK | 3 altre recensioni | Sep 30, 2018 |

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Statistiche

Opere
29
Opere correlate
8
Utenti
2,560
Popolarità
#10,034
Voto
4.1
Recensioni
27
ISBN
112
Lingue
4
Preferito da
4

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