The Merchant of Venice

This volume documents the full tradition of criticism of The Merchant of Venice ranging from 1775 to 1939. The Merchant of Venice has always been regarded as one of Shakespeare''s most interesting plays, though it poses many challenges due to what is seen as its inherent anti-Semitism. Before the 19th century critical reaction is relatively fragmentary, but between then and the late 20th century the critical tradition reveals the power of the play to evoke emotion in the theatre. Since the middle of the 20th century, reactions to the drama have been influenced by the Nazi destruction of European Jewry. An extensive introduction charts the reactions to the play up to the beginning of the 21st century and reflects changing reactions to prejudice in this period. Material by a variety of critics appears here for the first time since initial publication, including from Malone, Hazlitt, Jameson, Heine, Knight, Lewes, Halliwell-Phillips, Furnivall, Irving, Ruskin, Swinburne, Masefield, Gollancz and Quiller-Couch. This revised edition features a new supplementary introduction by Gary Watt surveying and analyzing trends in criticism since the volume was first published in 2005, including a focus on: Jewishness and anti-Semitism and the character of Shylock mercantile, financial, risk, insurance, usury and credit trial, law, rhetoric, equity and justice gender, queer themes, cross-dressing and the Antonio-Bassanio relationship * race and colonialism.

Préface
An updated edition of collected criticism offering a unique account of the critical history of one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays. This edition features a new supplementary introduction.

Auteur

William Baker is Trustee Professor, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of English and University Libraries, at Northern Illinois University, USA. He is the author/editor of numerous books and his co-authored Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History and his The Letters of Wilkie Collins were honoured by Choice as the year's most outstanding books (2006 and 2000).

WILLIAM BAKER is Professor, Department of English, and Professor, University Libraries, at Northern Illinois University. His previous books include Recent Work in Critical Theory, 1989-1995: An Annotated Bibliography (1996), Twentieth-Century Bibliography and Textual Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography (2000), and A Companion to the Victorian Novel (2002), all available from Greenwood Press. He also coedited The Letters of Wilkie Collins (1999), and has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for 2002-2003 to edit another three volumes of Wilkie Collins's letters.

Brian Vickers is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Distinguished Senior Fellow in The School of Advanced Study, University of London.Gary Watt is a Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, and one of the General Editors of Law and Humanities. He was named UK 'Law Teacher of the Year' 2009.Brian Vickers is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Distinguished Senior Fellow in The School of Advanced Study, University of London.Joseph Candido is Professor of English at the University of Arkansas, USA. He has published extensively on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, particularly the Elizabethan and Jacobean history play. He is the editor of King John in the series Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition, and is editor of The Text, the Play, and the Globe: Essays on Literary Influence in Shakespeare's World and His Work in Honor of Charles R. Forker (2016).

Résumé
This volume documents the full tradition of criticism of The Merchant of Venice ranging from 1775 to 1939.

The Merchant of Venice has always been regarded as one of Shakespeare's most interesting plays, though it poses many challenges due to what is seen as its inherent anti-Semitism. Before the 19th century critical reaction is relatively fragmentary, but between then and the late 20th century the critical tradition reveals the power of the play to evoke emotion in the theatre. Since the middle of the 20th century, reactions to the drama have been influenced by the Nazi destruction of European Jewry.

An extensive introduction charts the reactions to the play up to the beginning of the 21st century and reflects changing reactions to prejudice in this period. Material by a variety of critics appears here for the first time since initial publication, including from Malone, Hazlitt, Jameson, Heine, Knight, Lewes, Halliwell-Phillips, Furnivall, Irving, Ruskin, Swinburne, Masefield, Gollancz and Quiller-Couch.

This revised edition features a new supplementary introduction by Gary Watt surveying and analyzing trends in criticism since the volume was first published in 2005, including a focus on:

• Jewishness and anti-Semitism and the character of Shylock
• mercantile, financial, risk, insurance, usury and credit
• trial, law, rhetoric, equity and justice
• gender, queer themes, cross-dressing and the Antonio-Bassanio relationship
• race and colonialism.

Contenu

General Editor's Preface
General Editor's Preface to the Revised Series
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Introduction to the Revised Edition, Gary Watt

Criticism from 1775-1939

Notes
Select Bibliography
a) Editions and Playtexts (In Chronological Order)
b) Literary Studies
c) Theatre Studies
Index