Revenge Tragedy and Classical Philosophy on the Early Modern Stage / / Christopher Crosbie.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2018
• VerfasserIn: Crosbie, Christopher,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Edinburgh Critical Studies in Shakespeare and Philosophy : ECSSP
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (320 p.)

Examines the influence of classical philosophy on revenge narratives by Shakespeare and his contemporariesAnalyses the twentieth-century development of revenge tragedy as a genre, and diagnoses the roots of modern criticism’s tendency to treat most philosophy as estranged from the violent work of revengeProvides fresh readings of five plays central to the revenge tragedy genre, paying close attention to the conditioning influence of classical philosophy on their narratives of retributionReveals how revenge tragedy’s distinctive ‘moods’ or ‘atmospheres’ emerge from fully-realized sets of ontological assumptions which help shape reception of retribution on the early modern stageDevelops new reception histories for five classical philosophical doctrines, revealing their currency and, what’s more, radical adaptability within early modern EnglandThis book discovers within early modern revenge tragedy the surprising shaping presence of a wide array of classical philosophies not commonly affiliated with the genre. By recovering the pervasive influence of Aristotelian faculty psychology on The Spanish Tragedy, Aristotelian ethics on Titus Andronicus, Lucretian atomism on Hamlet, Galenic pneumatics on Antonio’s Revenge and Epictetian Stoicism on The Duchess of Malfi, Crosbie reveals how the very atmospheres and ontological assumptions of revenge tragedy exert their own kind of conditioning dramaturgical force. The book also revitalises our understanding of how the Renaissance stage, even at its most lurid, functions as a unique space for the era’s practical, vernacular engagement with received philosophy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgements -- Series Editor’s Preface -- Introduction: On Revenge Tragedy and the Shaping Influence of Classical Philosophy -- 1. Oeconomia and the Vegetative Soul: Thomas Kyd’s Naturalisation of Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy -- 2. Fixing Moderation: Titus Andronicus and the Aristotelian Determination of Value -- 3. ‘A fine pate full of fine dirt’: Hamlet among the Atomists -- 4. ‘Vein by vein’: The Pneumatics of Retribution in John Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge -- 5. Prohairesis on the Inside: The Duchess of Malfi and Epictetian Volition -- Epilogue: A Kind of Sensible Justice -- Index