The Winter’s Tale: Language and Writing

Mario DiGangi is Professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. He is the author of The Homoerotics of Early Modern Drama (1997) and Sexual Types: Embodiment, Agency, and Dramatic Character from Shakespeare to Shirley (2011) and has edited three plays of Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet.

Series editor’s preface
Preface

Introduction - the language of genre
What is a winter’s tale?
The Winter’s Tale and comedy
The Winter’s Tale and tragedy
Sources, intertexts, allusions
Writing matters

1 Engaging the language of the text(s)
The texts of The Winter’s Tale
Listening to the language of the opening scene
Editorial interventions: Spelling, capitalization, punctuation
Editorial additions: Stage directions
Fallen language in The Winter’s Tale
Writing Matters

2 Language: Style and form
Prose, verse and rhyme
Analyzing Shakespeare’s blank verse
Soliloquies
Hermione’s oration
Reporting
Writing matters

3 Language and history
Women’s speech and authority
Obedience and resistance
Festive pleasures, festive dangers
Faith, magic and art: The statue scene
Writing matters

4 Writing and language skills
Choosing an essay topic I
Choosing an essay topic II: Creative approaches
Writing the essay

Bibliography
Index