Shakespeare's World [Paperback]

D. L. Johanyak (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130971014 | ISBN-13: 978-0130971012 | Publication Date: August 15, 2003 | Edition: 1

This book is about the world inhabited by Shakespeare and his peers, from the midland town of Stratford-upon-Avon to distant islands of the South Pacific. Shakespeare's World opens the door to readers who are curious about the Bard and his world, providing an easy-to-understand overview of the time period and key events that impacted or were impacted by Shakespeare's writing. This comprehensive, exciting, and approachable book provides colorful yet simple descriptions of Shakespeare's life, Tudor England, Renaissance Europe, and global colonialism during the 16th and early 17th centuries. Written to help readers explore Shakespeare's life and works, the book offers insights into the writing of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

SHAKESPEARE'S WORLD is an engaging overview of Tudor England, Renaissance Europe, and global colonialism in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

This historical and cultural context provides the background necessary far a thorough study of Shakespeare's life and works. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the political, social, and cultural landscapes that impacted the Yard through easy-to-read descriptions of topics ranging from the Globe Theater to the Elizabethan social order and more.

This text includes:

• Plot synopses of the Bard's plays and poems.
• Chronologies outlining key events of Shakespeare's time.
• A geographical chart of the regions and places referenced in the Bard's works, from "the Indies" to "the South Seas."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Books about William Shakespeare continue to proliferate. By 1999, the year commemorating the four hundredth anniversary of the Globe Theater's opening, studies about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, the European Renaissance, and New World colonialism filled library shelves with facts and theories about this fascinating period.

This book combines perspectives from those realms to offer an integrated approach to the study of Shakespeare's world, a global society that nurtured and challenged the talented writer from the English midlands. While some view Shakespeare as a middle-class upstart who wrote from pastoral experience and a classic education, deeper layers of meaning await discovery between the lines of his sonnets and plays.

With a window on the world from his Bankside theater, Shakespeare observed everyday English life while keeping an ear attuned to global events. His plays reflect contemporary influences as well as information and speculation about distant regions and diverse peoples. Shakespeare enjoyed thwarting stereotypes. His drama stimulated interest in the commonplace and in little known or misunderstood aspects of "otherness."

I wrote Shakespeare's World to help students appreciate the depth and breadth of Shakespeare's global awareness. These chapters explore topics not commonly associated with Shakespeare study: England's trading ventures, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Renaissance arts and science, and New World discoveries. Enacted on the Globe Theater floorboards, allusions to key events, important figures, and exotic lands tell us that Shakespeare was not merely a merchant's son or a London playwright, but a man of the world who dramatized his perceptions to create a lasting legacy of his times.

TO THE READER

This text provides an overview of Shakespeare's world, an age of discovery and adventure set against the backdrop of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Topics included in this work provide a colorful picture of Shakespeare's society by giving readers a spectrum of views about sixteenth and seventeenth century life. Obviously, not everything can be included, and selections were based on a topic's scope or impact on Shakespeare's life or times.

Period documents sometimes are quoted verbatim from primary sources, which means that spelling and vocabulary may be inconsistent. In some cases the print uses "v" for "u" or a character resembling "f" for "s" which makes the text difficult to read. I have followed printing conventions, even when they differ from document to document. Some secondary sources use modern spelling.

Quotes from Shakespeare's plays are referenced from the second edition of the Riverside Shakespeare (G. Blakemore Evans and J. J. M. Tobin, eds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997). I chose this edition because it enjoys a reliable reputation, and it has been used by Shakespeare students for many years.

Questions at the end of each chapter provide opportunities for review and application of the material. Critical thinking and research activities allow students to explore key topics and related issues. Students may utilize these activities on their own or teachers may assign them for credit. A list of additional resources may guide readers to further study.

I hope readers will enjoy this material as much as I do, and that this work will enhance their study of Shakespeare's world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (August 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130971014
• ISBN-13: 978-0130971012
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,377,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars D. L. Johanyak's Insightful Book Is A Must-Have Companion!, December 11, 2003

By 

Jason N. Kamalie (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shakespeare's World (Paperback)

This well-researched, articulate, and richly detailed account describing the life, times, influences, and global society of one of the world's best loved & eternal writers is a must-have companion for students, professors, and bard-lovers around "The Globe." It is an exceptional complement to all of the mainstay texts in providing illumined treatment of Shakespeare's life and times uncommonly found in those staple works.

Beginning with the basic information of Shakespeare's life in chapters one and two, Johanyak aptly describes and characterizes his works in the chapters following while providing a synopsis of his professional progression. Later chapters pertaining to Elizabethan Society and social order, European and Christian influences, effects of the Renaissance, and European collonialism provide a detailed yet approachable vision of the Bard's time and place as an intersection of conflicting ideas, institutions, and motivations which probably influenced Shakespeare profoundly. Johanyak's treatment of this epochal intersection focuses on how Shakespeare perceived his society, how his society might or actually did perceive him, and the relevance of his global awareness. Paying meticulous attention to the details of his language in the best-known works, Johanyak proceeds to correlate Shakespeare's knowledge of the world, his viewpoints (subtle and obvious), and his keen, almost mystic, understanding of human nature within this idea intersection of his era.

Johanyak's piece is well-written, scholarly, but not mundane or prone to the stilted language which often characterizes other similar works. Geared toward the serious Shakespeare student, organization, or admirer, this book is still accessible to the casual reader, thereby demonstrating Johanyak's mastery of the complex subject matter and the sublime ideas inherent therein.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable and Informative, November 3, 2003

By 

Shakespeare Scholar (Northeast Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shakespeare's World (Paperback)

Johanyak's book offers a useful approach to Shakespeare by examining the world that influenced the culture in which his works emerged. As stated in the preface, _Shakespeare's World_ enlightens readers with information that illuminates the landscape of Shakespeare's creative genius. Chapters on the northern Renaissance, the Reformation, and European colonialism, for example, help us to understand "his" world--a world untouched by 21st century perspectives. The book also offers helpful tools, such as a list of referenced geographical regions in Shakespeare's works, simple plot summaries of the plays and narrative poems, and an especially helpful chronology of key period events that set the stage for Shakespeare's literary accomplishments.

This is a handy companion for literature students and general readers who may be curious about the early modern period and its influences on Elizabethan England's greatest playwright. The book utilizes a simple, approachable writing style accented by period artwork that should satisfy the hungry mind.

3.0 out of 5 stars Great choice of ancillar texts, but ..., October 27, 2011

By 

Jenny M. Raja "Shakescene Books" (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shakespeare's World (Paperback)

I would use this as a text for my students because of Johanyak's sweeping choice of texts from Shakespeare's time that give a fresh voice and explanation of the sixteenth/early seventeenth century.

My one quite serious quibble, however, is with the book's poor syntax (or perhaps poor editing). Explanations are often badly written, with some sentences either making little sense, grammatically incorrect, or in some cases just plain wrong. "Shakespeare's King Lear is set in an early period of English history and myth, evoking similar myths." Huh? "Hung" for "hanged","utilized" rather than "use". Her over-reliance on "impacted" for "affected" just got irritating. I have to wonder if the scope of her project (she mentions in an interview that the book was initially much larger), when reduced to its present size, left her little time for revising the explanatory paragraphs whose brevity is to be applauded, but whose poor editing is headache inducing.

It's also worth noting that her choices of early modern art are poorly realized by Pearson's evident parsimony on the production side. This is a shame, as she's chosen some genuinely gorgeous stuff. Moving, informative, beautiful - but frequently hardly discernable in their small, smudgy black and white reproductions.

It's a book that deserves re-visiting and re-editing.