English Renaissance Tragedy

Tragedy delivers bad news-it tell us, for one thing, that we are not in control of our own lives. So why should we pay attention to it, especially in a democratic culture in which autonomy and self-direction are prized goals? English Renaissance Tragedy: Ideas of Freedom attends to this questions in the context of the drama written in and around the time of Shakespeare. Arguing that tragedy of this period engages our interest in matters of fundamental importance, Peter Holbrook explore the ways in which the genre raises and debates (but by no means resolves) a range of questions to do with human liberty. Part One offers an exploration of freedom, tragedy, and English Renaissance literary and political culture, while Part Two gives a series of fifteen in-depth examinations of plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster and their contemporaries, including Doctor Faustus, Edward II, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, The White Devil and The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi.