Shakespeare's Literary Authorship

This book considers Shakespeare as a literary figure, analysing his full professional career, both poetry and plays.

Patrick Cheney (Author)

9781107404595, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 February 2012

324 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.48 kg

'Cheney's argument about the elusive form of authorship he describes is convincing because of the sustained readings of specific details the book offers - his method of seeking authorship in intertextual traces is both suggestive and effective.' Edward Gieskes, University of South Carolina

Re-situating Shakespeare as an early modern professional, in this book Patrick Cheney views him not simply as a man of the theatre, but also as an author with a literary career. Rather than present himself as a national or laureate poet, as Spenser does, Shakespeare conceals his authorship through dramaturgy, rendering his artistic techniques and literary ambitions opaque. Accordingly, recent scholars have attended more to his innovative theatricality or his indifference to textuality than to his contribution to modern English authorship. By tracking Shakespeare's 'counter-laureate authorship', Cheney builds upon his previous study on Shakespeare and literary authorship, and demonstrates the presence throughout the plays of sustained intertextual fictions about the twin media of printed poetry and theatrical performance. In challenging Spenser as England's National Poet, Shakespeare reinvents English authorship as a key part of his legacy.

Introduction: 'Printless foot': finding Shakespeare
Part I. Rethinking Shakespearean Authorship: 1. The epic spear of Achilles: self-concealing authorship in The Rape of Lucrece, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet
2. The forms of 'counter-laureate authorship': Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1 Henry IV, The Tempest
3. Lyric poetry in Shakespearean theatre: As You Like It, 1 Henry IV, Henry V, The Tempest
4. Books and theatre in Shakespeare's plays: Richard III, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Othello
Part II. Fictions of Authorship: 5. 'Shows of love . . . bookish rule': theatre, book, and literary history in 2 Henry IV
6. Halting sonnets: the comedy of Petrarchan desire in Much Ado about Nothing
7. The profession of consciousness: Hamlet, tragedy, and the literary eternal
8. Venting rhyme for a mockery: Cymbeline and national romance.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: general [DSB]