Andrew Hadfield

Shakespeare and Republicanism

Introduction: was Shakespeare a Republican? Part I. Republican Culture in the 1590s: 1. Forms of Republican culture in late sixteenth-century England 2. Literature and Republicanism in the age of Shakespeare Part II. Shakespeare and Republicanism: Introduction: Shakespeares early Republican career 3. Shakespeares Pharsalia: the first Tetralogy 4. The beginning of the Republic: Venus and Lucrece 5. The end of the Republic: Titus Andronicus and Julius Caesar 6. The Radical Hamlet 7. After the Republican moment Conclusion Bibliography.

Shakespeare and Renaissance politics

Shakespeare, like many of his contemporaries, was concerned with the question of the succession and the legitimacy of the monarch. From the early plays through the histories to Hamlet, Shakespeares work is haunted by the problem of political legitimacy. Shakespeare and Reniassance Politics examines his works as political events and interventions, and explores the literature of the Renaissance and its relation to fundamental political issues.

Briton and Scythian: Tudor representations of Irish origins

It is a commonplace of recent British historiography that in the early modern period a sophisticated and sceptical concept of writing history began to develop which involved, among other things, historians becoming significantly less credulous in their use of sources. Often the crucial break with medieval ‘chronicles’ is seen to have been brought about by the triumph of the exiled Italian humanist, Polydore Vergil, over the fervently nationalistic band of British historians and antiquarians led by John Leland, establishing that the Arthurian legends were no more than an origin myth. Jack Scarisbrick, for example, has argued that ‘early Tudor England did not produce a sudden renewal of Arthurianism … As the sixteenth century wore on, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s patriotic fantasies received increasingly short shrift from reputable historians.’ However, this comforting narrative of increasingly thorough and careful scholarship ignores the fact that there was a form of history writing in which the reliance upon origin myths such as the Arthurian legends and the ‘matter of Britain’ actually increased dramatically after the Reformation, namely English histories of Ireland.

Spenser, Ireland, and sixteenth-century political theory

Les dix sonnets dedicatoires qui accompagnaient la premiere edition de The Fearie Queene (1590), sont a rapprocher de A View of the Present State of Ireland, texte ecrit aux environ de 1596, non publie mais neanmoins largement diffuse dans la classe politique

Shakespeare and republicanism: history and cultural materialism

This article argues that Shakespeare studies has been limited by a lack of interest in political analysis and discussion, even though many critics profess that their work is seriously concerned with political issues. The field has become dominated by identity politics and the theoretical exploration of the self, legitimate concerns for a politicized criticism. However, as a result, analysis of political institutions and political treatises has been neglected, leaving debates dependent on insights produced in the 1980s, with discussions of politics often taking place without any curiosity about politics in early modern England. An analysis of Shakespeares writing and career, read in terms of contemporary political arguments, indicates that he was not the apologist for absolutism that critics of both Left and Right have generally conceived. His early histories, The Rape of Lucrece and Titus Andronicus, suggest that he was keenly aware of the political debates and problems that dominated public life in England in the 1590s. Furthermore, they indicate a sophisticated awareness of comparative political analysis, and a well-developed understanding of republicanism. Republicanism in the late sixteenth century could not easily be equated with republicanism as it appeared in the 1640s – one reason why earlier forms have been overlooked or denied by historians – and concentrated on limiting the power of the monarch, rather than overthrowing him or her, and developing institutions that would protect the liberty of the people. Reading Shakespeares works in the light of such history and theory is a way of returning to the political agenda announced by cultural materialists in the 1980s, and attempting to rediscover a public form of literary and cultural analysis.

Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe

This collection of essays explores the diverse ways in which Shakespeare and his contemporaries experienced and imagined Europe. The book charts the aspects of European politics and culture which interested Renaissance travellers, thus mapping the context within which Shakespeares plays with European settings would have been received. Chapters cover the politics of continental Europe, the representation of foreigners on the English stage, the experiences of English travellers abroad, Shakespeares reading of modern European literature, the influence of Italian comedy, his presentation of Moors from Europes southern frontier, and his translation of Europe into settings for his plays.

Labyrinth of Desire: Invention and Culture in the Work of Sir Philip Sidney

Craft argues that the old and new historicist conflict between Sidney the transcendent humanist poet and Sidney the erotically and politically frustrated courtier obscures Sidneys own poetic practice.

Spenser And Religion—Yet Again

This essay argues that scholars have invariably misrepresented Spensers religious views by concentrating only on his doctrinal and confessional allegiances. Spensers religion needs to be seen as a response to the Reformation and the realization that marriage was now the institution in which everyone had to live. Using the work of John Calvin in particular, the essay argues that the first edition of The Faerie Queene charts the transformation of religious values after the Reformation, showing that Holiness could no longer be seen as a virtue isolated from all others, a realization that, as the poem demonstrates, had far-reaching consequences.

Lying in early modern culture

This essay explores the issue of lying in early modern English literature and culture and argues that we need a theory of lying to understand how truth was understood. It asks where we might find evidence of lies and why people might lie, as well as examining how writers explored the issue of lies and lying in their work. It concludes that religion was often the main reason why people lied, thought about lying and expected others to lie, given the serious punishments meted out to heretic. Thinking about lying should prompt us to rethink our understanding of early modern religious culture and we should certainly look more closely at religious groups that countenanced lying, such as Family of Love. Writers discussed include John Donne, Robert Greene, Sir Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser.

30@30: the future of literary thinking

All good writing takes us somewhere uncomfortable. One of the great services given by Textual Practice over the past 30 years has been to create a comfortable place for uncomfortable criticism. Yet right now, it is not writing but the world itself that is proving incommodious. What should criticism be doing in a political culture that has embraced hostility?