The University of Texas at Tyler Libraries

Johnson's Shakespeare / G.F. Parker.

By: Parker, G. F. (Graham Frederick), 1956-Contributor(s): Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784Material type: TextTextPublisher: Oxford : Oxford ; New York : Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1989Description: xx, 204 p. ; 23 cmISBN: 0198129742; 9780198129745Subject(s): Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784. Preface to Shakespeare's plays | Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 -- Knowledge -- Literature | Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation -- History -- 18th century | Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Tragedies | Drama in English Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 - Critical studiesAdditional physical formats: Online version:: Johnson's Shakespeare.DDC classification: 822.3/3 LOC classification: PR2975.J643 | P37 1989
Contents:
Taking Johnson Seriously -- Just Representations of General Nature -- Sceptical Thinking -- The Pleasure of Generality -- Not Heroic but Human -- The Mind against the World -- The Idealist Imagination--Wordsworth--Falstaff--Hamlet -- The Defiant Imagination--Lear--Audience Identification and Dramatic Illusion -- Individuals or Species? -- Supernatural Creation--Caliban and Prospero -- Organic Unity--Wordplay--Romeo and Juliet -- Conclusion: On the Necessity of Choosing -- Johnson and Tragedy.
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Stacks - 3rd Floor 		PR2975.J643 P37 1989 (Browse shelf) Available 0000002135606

Includes bibliographical references.

Taking Johnson Seriously -- Just Representations of General Nature -- Sceptical Thinking -- The Pleasure of Generality -- Not Heroic but Human -- The Mind against the World -- The Idealist Imagination--Wordsworth--Falstaff--Hamlet -- The Defiant Imagination--Lear--Audience Identification and Dramatic Illusion -- Individuals or Species? -- Supernatural Creation--Caliban and Prospero -- Organic Unity--Wordplay--Romeo and Juliet -- Conclusion: On the Necessity of Choosing -- Johnson and Tragedy.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

A most useful synthesizing study of some of the major problems concerning the understanding of Johnson's critical assessment of Shakespeare. Parker's Johnson is well worth reading, if only to follow, in the last chapter, his interesting and cogent argument involving Johnson's reaction to certain disturbing passages in Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth that "move us in ways so powerfully disturbing to our human nature as to be hardly endurable." In an effort to place Johnson's view of Shakespeare in proper perspective, the author, who has read deeply in the area of criticism, explores major Johnsonian critical principles in respect not only to the plays themselves but also to critical commentary by three primary Romantic critics: Coleridge, Schlegel, and Hazlitt. The first two chapters deal with Johnson's concept of "general nature" (an excellent summary of significant points), with the most informative and fascinating chapter concentrating on Johnson's view of the creative mind in relation to his special reading of Shakespeare. Highly recommended for anyone interested in 18th-century literature and literary criticism. Includes extracts from Preface to Shakespeare. Adequate notes and index. Levels: graduate and upper-division undergraduate. -R. G. Brown, Ball State University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

G. F. Parker is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge

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