The Hand on the Shakespearean Stage
eBook - PDF

The Hand on the Shakespearean Stage

Gesture, Touch and the Spectacle of Dismemberment

  1. 328 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Hand on the Shakespearean Stage

Gesture, Touch and the Spectacle of Dismemberment

About this book

This ground-breaking new book uncovers the way Shakespeare draws upon the available literature and visual representations of the hand to inform his drama. Providing an analysis of gesture, touch, skill and dismemberment in a range of Shakespeare's works, it shows how the hand was perceived in Shakespeare's time as an indicator of human agency, emotion, social and personal identity. It demonstrates how the hand and its activities are described and embedded in Shakespeare's texts and about its role on the Shakespearean stage: as part of the actor's body, in the language as metaphor, and as a morbid stage-prop. Understanding the cultural signifiers that lie behind the early modern understanding of the hand and gesture, opens up new and sometimes disturbing ways of reading and seeing Shakespeare's plays.

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Yes, you can access The Hand on the Shakespearean Stage by Farah Karim Cooper in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Shakespeare Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. FC
  2. Half title
  3. Related Titles
  4. Title
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. Contents
  8. Acknowledgements
  9. List of Illustrations
  10. Introduction
  11. 1 The idea of the hand in Shakespeare’s world
  12. 2 Manners and beauty: The social hand
  13. 3 ‘Lively action’: Gesture in early modern performance
  14. 4 Gesture in Shakespeare’s narrative art
  15. 5 ‘Let lips do what hands do’: Shakespeare’s sense of touch
  16. 6 Amputation: The spectacle of dismemberment in Shakespeare’s theatres
  17. Epilogue: Fingers
  18. Notes
  19. Bibliography
  20. Index