Face-To-Face in Shakespearean Drama: Ethics, Performance, Philosophy - Paperback

by Matthew James Smith (Editor), Julia Reinhard Lupton (Editor)

Explores the drama of proximity and co-presence in Shakespeare's plays

Key Features

• Brings together the rare pairing of philosophical ethics and performance studies in Shakespeare's plays
• Engages with the thought of philosophers including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hannah Arendt, Paul Ricoeur, Stanley Cavell, and Emmanuel Levinas

This book celebrates the theatrical excitement and philosophical meanings of human interaction in Shakespeare. On stage and in life, the face is always window and mirror, representation and presence. It examines the emotional and ethical surplus that appears between faces in the activity and performance of human encounter on stage. By transitioning from face as noun to verb - to face, outface, interface, efface, deface, sur-face - chapters reveal how Shakespeare's plays discover conflict, betrayal and deception as well as love, trust and forgiveness between faces and the bodies that bear them.

Front Jacket

'Face to face encounters are the essence of dramatic art. This collection shows us that close reading - knowing the score - is the condition of possibility for theatrical performance. The essays here feature some of the freshest and most original writing on Shakespeare I have seen in a long time.' Michael D. Bristol, McGill University Explores the drama of proximity and co-presence in Shakespeare's plays This book celebrates the theatrical excitement and philosophical meanings of human interaction in Shakespeare. On stage and in life, the face is always window and mirror, representation and presence. A distinguished group of contributors examine the emotional and ethical surplus that appears between faces in the activity and performance of human encounter on stage. By transitioning from face as noun to face as verb - to face, outface, interface, efface, deface, sur-face - chapters reveal how Shakespeare's plays discover conflict, betrayal and deception as well as love, trust and forgiveness between faces and the bodies that bear them. Matthew J. Smith is Associate Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University. Julia Reinhard Lupton is Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. Cover image: Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in Macbeth, at the Other Place, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976 (c)Laurence Burns / ArenaPAL Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-3568-0 Barcode

Author Biography

Matthew J. Smith is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Azusa Pacific University.

Julia Reinhard Lupton is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author or co-author of five books, including Shakespeare Dwelling: Designs for the Theater of Life (2018), Thinking with Shakespeare (2015), and Citizen-Saints (2012). She has edited or co-edited many volumes and special issues, including Shakespeare and Virtue: A Handbook (with Donovan Sherman), and Shakespeare's Virtuous Theatre: Power, Capacity, and the Good (with Kent Lehnhof and Carolyn Sale), Shakespeare and Hospitality (with David Goldstein), and Face to Face with Shakespeare (with Matthew Smith). She is a former Guggenheim Fellow and a former Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America.