The Hand on the Shakespearean Stage
Gesture, Touch and the Spectacle of Dismemberment
- 328 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
The Hand on the Shakespearean Stage
Gesture, Touch and the Spectacle of Dismemberment
About This Book
This ground-breaking new book uncovers the way Shakespeare draws upon the available literature and visual representations of the hand to inform his drama. Providing an analysis of gesture, touch, skill and dismemberment in a range of Shakespeare's works, it shows how the hand was perceived in Shakespeare's time as an indicator of human agency, emotion, social and personal identity. It demonstrates how the hand and its activities are described and embedded in Shakespeare's texts and about its role on the Shakespearean stage: as part of the actor's body, in the language as metaphor, and as a morbid stage-prop. Understanding the cultural signifiers that lie behind the early modern understanding of the hand and gesture, opens up new and sometimes disturbing ways of reading and seeing Shakespeare's plays.
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Table of contents
- FC
- Half title
- Related Titles
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1 The idea of the hand in Shakespeareâs world
- 2 Manners and beauty: The social hand
- 3 âLively actionâ: Gesture in early modern performance
- 4 Gesture in Shakespeareâs narrative art
- 5 âLet lips do what hands doâ: Shakespeareâs sense of touch
- 6 Amputation: The spectacle of dismemberment in Shakespeareâs theatres
- Epilogue: Fingers
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index