A Defence of Pretence Civility and the Theatre in Early Modern England
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- Hardcover ausgewählt
- Taschenbuch
- eBook
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Sprache:Englisch
113,99 €
inkl. gesetzl. MwSt.,
Beschreibung
Produktdetails
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Erscheinungsdatum
02.12.2025
Abbildungen
11 b/w illus.
Verlag
University PressesSeitenzahl
280
Maße (L/B/H)
24/16,1/2,1 cm
Gewicht
638 g
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN
978-0-691-26999-3
How the drama of Shakespeare's time demonstrates the tensions within civilityIs civility merely a matter of reinforcing status and excluding others? Or is it a lubricant in a polarised world, enabling us to overcome tribal loyalties and cooperate for the common good? In A Defence of Pretence, Indira Ghose argues that it is both. Ghose turns to the drama of Shakespeare's time to explore the notion of civility. The theatre, she suggests, was a laboratory where many of the era's conflicts played out. The plays test the precepts found in treatises on civility and show that, in the complexity and confusion of human life, moral purity is an illusion. We are always playing roles. In these plays, as in social life, pretence is inescapable. Could it be a virtue?Civility, Ghose finds, is radically ambiguous. The plays of Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton, grappling with dissimulation, lies and social performance, question the idea of a clear-cut boundary between sincerity and dissembling, between truth and lies. What is decisive is the use to which our play-acting is put. A pretence of mutual respect might serve an ethical end: to foster a sense of common purpose. In life, as in drama, the concept of the common good might be a fiction, but one that is crucial for human society.
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