Shakespeare and the Rhetoric of Elocution: Thirteen Plays - Paperback

by J. M. Maguin (Author)

A presentation of the aspect of rhetoric dealing with figures, and Shakespeare's use of them in thirteen plays covering the whole of his career as a dramatist in London and the various genres illustrated: comedies, histories and tragedies. Richard III, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II, 1 Henry IV, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, The Tempest are closely studied, showing the many critical advantages the awareness of rhetoric brings the reader and spectator.

Author Biography

J.M. Maguin is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at University Paul Valéry Montpellier; Honorary President of the French Shakespeare Society (SFS); Honorary Director of Research at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), co-founder of Centre d'Études et de Recherches Élisabéthaines (CERE, 1970), now merged in the Institut de Recherches sur la Renaissance l'âge Classique et les Lumières (IRCL, UMR 5186 of CNRS); and co-founder of the international journal Cahiers Élisabéthains (1972). He has published many articles on the drama and poetry of Renaissance England, with a special focus on theatre semiotics, poetics, and rhetoric. His books include La Nuit dans le théâtre de Shakespeare et de ses prédécesseurs (Night in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Predecessors) [Lille, 1980, 2 vols.]; William Shakespeare (with Angela Maguin; Fayard, Paris, 1996), Coriolanus, Shakespeare (Atlande, Paris, 2007), Théâtre élisabéthain (coed., Pléiade, Gallimard, Paris 2009, 2 vols.), an anthology of English Renaissance plays in translation.