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Narrating the Visual in Shakespeare

Meek, Richard

Authors

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Dr Richard Meek R.Meek@hull.ac.uk
Lecturer / Programme Director for the MA in English



Abstract

This book examines Shakespeare's fascination with the art of narrative and the visuality of language. Richard Meek complicates our conception of Shakespeare as either a 'man of the theatre' or a 'literary dramatist', suggesting ways in which his works themselves debate the question of text versus performance. Beginning with an exploration of the pictorialism of Shakespeare's narrative poems, the book goes on to examine several moments in Shakespeare's dramatic works when characters break off the action to describe an absent, 'offstage' event, place or work of art. Meek argues that Shakespeare does not simply prioritise drama over other forms of representation, but rather that he repeatedly exploits the interplay between different types of mimesis - narrative, dramatic and pictorial - in order to beguile his audiences and readers. Setting Shakespeare's works in their literary and rhetorical contexts, and engaging with contemporary literary theory, the book offers new readings of Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, Hamlet, King Lear and The Winter's Tale. The book will be of particular relevance to readers interested in the relationship between verbal and visual art, theories of representation and mimesis, Renaissance literary and rhetorical culture, and debates regarding Shakespeare's status as a literary dramatist.

Citation

Meek, R. (2009). Narrating the Visual in Shakespeare. The University of Hull. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315248400

Book Type Authored Book
Publication Date 2009
Deposit Date Dec 19, 2014
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Book Title Narrating the Visual in Shakespeare
ISBN 9781351915953; 9780754657750
DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315248400
Keywords REF 2014 submission
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/369708