Foundations of Shakespeare

Foundations of Shakespeare is a comprehensive no-nonsense introductory course on studying Shakespeare's plays. Covering his most famous plays — four major comedies (A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night and Measure for Measure) and the four major tragedies (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth) — this book provides the reader with everything necessary to take their appreciation of Shakespeare to a level beyond what they would have learned in school, including historical contexts, sources, genre and structure, and important interpretations of the texts. Completely shorn of 'woke' scholarship, it is notable for drawing chiefly on serious material that was produced before the politically motivated work which has blighted the academy since 1980, but in the process shows that Shakespeare is more relevant to contemporary political debates than ever before.