The Modernist Shakespeare: Critical Texts in a Material World
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Author Description
Every epoch recreates its classical icons--and for literary culture no icon is more central or more protean than Shakespeare. Even though finding the authentic Shakespeare has been a goal of scholarship since the eighteenth century, he has always been constructed as a contemporary author. In this critical study, Grady charts the construction of Shakespeare as a twentieth-century text, redirecting "new historicist" methods to an investigation of the social roots of contemporary Shakespeare criticism. Beginning with the formation of professionalism as an ideology in the Victorian Age, this theoretically-informed study describes widespread attempts to save the values of the cultural tradition, in reformulated Modernist guise, from the threat of professionalist positivism in modern universities.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This work investigates how twentieth-century literary criticism has continuously reconstructed Shakespeare to serve contemporary ideological needs rather than uncovering an authentic historical figure. Hugh Grady, a scholar of Shakespeare and critical theory, utilizes a framework rooted in new historicism to analyze the professionalization of literary studies. He argues that modern interpretations of Shakespeare are deeply influenced by the institutional pressures of the university and the desire to preserve cultural traditions against the rise of positivist academic methodologies.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- An analysis of the Victorian origins of modern literary professionalism.
- A critique of new historicist methodologies applied to Shakespearean scholarship.
- Examination of the tension between cultural tradition and professionalist positivism.
- Historical documentation of how Modernist values shaped twentieth-century interpretations of classical texts.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars frequently cite this text as a significant contribution to the meta-critical study of Shakespearean scholarship. Readers often note the high level of theoretical density, making it a specialized resource for those interested in the intersection of institutional history and literary theory.
Page Count:
272
Publication Date:
1995-02-02
Publisher:
Clarendon Press
ISBN-10:
0198183224
ISBN-13:
9780198183228
Literary Criticism
Academic
Cultural History
Modernism
