Shylock, the Roman: Honor and Irony in The Merchant of Venice

by Robert Schneider

Overview

"Shylock, the Roman: Honor and Irony in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice" proposes an entirely unexpected new meaning for one of Shakespeare�s best-known plays. In drilling deeply into a single play, it illuminates other Shakespeare plays and, more broadly, provides insight into the logic of Shakespeare�s artistry and point of view as a dramatist.
Shylock, the Roman takes an approach to The Merchant of Venice that has no precedent: it proposes that the Renaissance ethos of ancient Roman honor better defines the play�s moral point of view than the ostensibly obvious moral standard of Christian love and mercy�the moral standard that has defined a basic paradigm for Merchant of Venice interpretation for 400 years. The play is shown to be more about the deceptiveness of superficial appearance than about moral issues pertaining to Christian morality. This theme is clearly and repeatedly articulated throughout the play, which proves illuminating not only to one play but to Shakespeare's work generally.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013436428
Publisher:	Robert Schneider
Publication date:	09/10/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Robert Schneider holds a B.A. degree from The Johns Hopkins University (1974), where he studied history and literature. His approach to literary criticism was inspired by Professor Harold Jantz's close reading of Goethe's Faust, Professor Hugh Kenner's discussion of Joyce's Ulysses, and Professor Richard Macksey's lectures on comic theory and practice. He holds an M.A. degree in Modern European History from Columbia University (1975), where he studied the cultural history under Professor Jacques Barzun.

The first edition of Shylock, the Roman was published in 1999 with the subtitle "Unmasking Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." This edition is still available in a soft cover edition. The second edition, prepared for electronic publication, has been substantially reorganized and revised. It is shorter than the first edition by several thousand words, and has a different subtitle, "Honor and Irony in The Merchant of Venice." These changes render the previous edition obsolete, though all of the original edition's major points remain as they were. The second edition was completed in 2013, and is available only as an e-book.

Since the publication of the first edition of Shylock, the Roman in 1999, Schneider has worked on "Broken matches and bits of glass," an experiment in micro-history and multiple/simultaneous biography. This work in progress explores the year 1922 as a cross-section of the life and work of a wide-range of intellectual and artistic innovators in literature, painting, music, philosophy, film, and other fields.