The Greenblatt Reader [Paperback]

Stephen Greenblatt is one of the most influential practitioners of new historicism. This Reader makes available in one volume Greenblatt's most important writings on culture, Renaissance studies, and Shakespeare. It also features occasional pieces on subjects as diverse as story-telling and miracles, demonstrating the range of his cultural interests. Taken together, the texts collected here dispel the idea that new historicism is antithetical to literary and aesthetic value.Acknowledgments.

Introduction: Greenblatt and New Historicism.

Part One: Culture and New Historicism.

1 Culture.

2 Towards a Poetics of Culture.

3 The Touch of the Real.

Part Two: Renaissance Studies.

4 The Wound in the Wall.

5 Marvelous Possessions.

Part Three: Shakespeare Studies.

6 Invisible Bullets.

7 The Improvisation of Power.

8 Shakespeare and the Exorcists.

9 Martial Law in the Land of Cocaigne.

Part Four: Occasional Pieces.

10 Prologue to Hamlet in Purgatory.

11 China: Visiting Rites.

12 China: Visiting Rites (II).

13 Laos is Open.

14 Story-Telling.

Stephen Greenblatt: A Bibliography (1965-2003), compiled by Gustavo P. Secchi.

Index

“As a founder of the ‘new historicism’, Stephen Greenblatt has done more than establish a critical school; he has invented a habit of mind for literary criticism, which is indispensable to the temperament of our times, and crucial to the culture of the past. This admirable anthology represents the subtle play of pleasure and instruction, embodied in writings that move effortlessly between wonder and wisdom.” &ll³&