This Readers Guide traces the history of Hamlet criticism from the seventeenth century to the present in a way that is accessible to students and general readers. Providing the reader with substantial excerpts from all the key critical readings of the play, Huw Griffiths brings them together with editorial material to form a narrative illustrating the development of Hamlet criticism. Griffiths also includes accounts of the interaction between the film versions and critical readings of the play.

An accessible introductory survey of the key critical debates relating to one of the most widelystudied plays by Shakespeare
Traces the history of Hamlet criticism from the seventeenth century to the present day
A clear narrative provides helpful links between extracts and places them in context

Autorentext

HUW GRIFFITHS is Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements.- Introduction.- Neoclassical Approaches, or 'Does Ophelia's breath smell?'.- Sensibility to Romanticism: 'the majesty of melancholy'.- Psychoanalytic Approaches: Oedipus and After.- The Early Twentieth Century: Bradley, Eliot, Knight and Knights.- Some Contemporary Interpretations.- Recent French Philosophy and Hamlet: Derrida and Levinas.- Select Bibliography.- Index.