Author Description

A leading literary critic takes a historicist view of Shakespeare's most famous and enigmatic play. It is concerned with identity, time and power in Hamlet and the question of aesthetic form in relation to all these. It takes a fresh look at a Renaissance hero who exists, oddly, on the marginsof his play--and yet is condemned to be its hero. It frames the question that lies, implicitly, at the heart of Hamlet and, in some strange way, constitutes its tragedy: what is a play if not playacting?The second edition of the book clarifies and further corroborates this. The themes of incest and political legitimacy are addressed, the 'revision' theory is explored-and debunked-and the historical character of Richard examined in the context of Richard II in additional notes. Elsewhere, the authoradduces fresh evidence to demonstrate what he sees as crucial to Hamlet: the protagonist's remarkable facility for and preoccupation with theatre screening and indeed impeding the moment of spontaneous historical action.