This guide surveys the truly essential criticism of the play over the last four centuries, from 16th-century responses to the present day. Discussing key areas of debate, and a wide range of scholarship, Gillian Woods provides an invaluable introduction to the vast array of criticism surrounding one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. A comprehensive introductory guide to the key critical responses surrounding this much-loved Shakespeare play, from the 1590s through to the twenty-first century

A muchneeded introductory guide to the huge amount of secondary criticism on one of Shakespeare's most popular and widelystudied plays
Surveys key critical responses and interpretations from the sixteenth century through to today
Features a chapter on film adaptations, including Baz Luhrmann's 1996 boxoffice hit William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

Autorentext

GILLIAN WOODS is Lecturer in Renaissance Theatre and Drama at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements.- Note on the Text.- Introduction.- Patient Ears: Early Texts and Responses.- Well-Seeming Forms: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.- Righteous Kisses and Dateless Bargains: Romantics and Victorians.- Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy?: Genre Criticism.- What's in a Word?: Language and Deconstruction.- Kissing by the Book: Reading Petrarchism.- Death-Marked Love: Psychoanalytical Criticism.- Juliet and her Romeo: Feminism, Gender Studies and Queer Theory.- From Fair Verona to Verona Beach: Shakespeare on Film.- Conclusion.- Notes.- Select Bibliography.- Index.