Shakespeare's Sonnets: Critical Essays (Shakespeare Criticism) [Hardcover]

James Schiffer (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0815323654 | ISBN-13: 978-0815323655 | Publication Date: November 1, 1998 | Edition: 1

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Critical Essays is the essential Sonnets anthology for our time. This important collection focuses exclusively on contemporary criticism of the Sonnets, reprinting three highly influential essays from the past decade and including sixteen original analyses by leading scholars in the field. The contributors' diverse approaches range from the new historicism to the new bibliography, from formalism to feminism, from reception theory to cultural materialism, and from biographical criticism to queer theory. In addition, James Schiffer's introduction offers a comprehensive survey of 400 years of criticism of these fascinating, enigmatic poems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This very big collection of essays on the Sonnets is especially valuable for its comments on gender and sexuality and its close reading of quite a few of the poems. Schiffer's extensive bibliographic introduction helps to orient a student, fresh to the subject, to basic problems, issues and interpretations. The editor wisely steers clear of endless, fruitless discussion of autobiography.
–The Shakespeare Newsletter, Winter 1999

About the Author

James Schiffer is currently Professor and Head of the English Department at Northern Michigan University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815323654
• ISBN-13: 978-0815323655
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,969,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing Viewpoints in an Old Debate, May 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Shakespeare's Sonnets: Critical Essays (Shakespeare Criticism) (Hardcover)

The debate surrounding Shakespeare's Sonnets has raged on for a long time, and much of the scholarship on them has remained nebulous, repetitive, and overworked. James Schiffer's volume, however, is refreshingly brilliant and provocative: the essays he includes address an array of topics that are often overlooked, while many of the arguments are simultaneously revisionist and visionary, challenging the conventional wisdom that has guided the criticism on the Sonnets for so long. And what's even better, the arguments are beautifully and meticulously presented, crafted by some of the foremost Shakespeareans of our time.