The Duchess of Malfi: A critical guide

by Christina Luckyj

Overview

John Webster's classic revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi was first performed in 1613 and published in 1623. This guide offers students an introduction to its critical and performance history, including recent versions on stage and screen. It includes a keynote chapter outlining major areas of current research on the play and four new critical essays presenting new critical positions that offer divergent perspectives on Webster's religio-political allegiances and the politics and gendering of secrecy in the play. Finally, a guide to critical, web-based and production-related resources and an annotated bibliography provide a basis for further individual research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826441249
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/16/2011
Series:	Continuum Renaissance Drama Guides
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Christina Luckyj is Professor of English at Dalhousie University, Canada.

Table of Contents

Series Introduction \ Timeline andIntroduction, Christina Luckyj\ 1. The Critical Backstory, David Gunby \ 2. Performance History, Roberta Barker \ 3. The State of the Art: Critical Approaches 2000-2008, Dympna Callaghan \ 4. New Directions: 'Staging Secret Interiors: The Duchess of Malfi as Inns of Court and Anticourt Drama', Curtis Perry and Melissa Walter \ 5. The Duchess's Marriage in Contemporary Contexts Leah S. Marcus \ 6. New Directions: ‘Can this be certain?': The Duchess of Malfi's Secrets, Frances E. Dolan \ 7. ‘Greek is Turbaned Turk': Catholic Nostalgia in The Duchess of Malfi, Todd Borlik \ 8. A Survey of Resources, Christy Desmet
Bibliography\ Notes on Contributors \Index

Editorial Reviews

'This book will be invaluable to anyone teaching this extraordinary play. The essays in the volume furnish detailed investigations of historical contexts and illuminating readings of the play while guiding the reader toward other relevant scholarship. I will certainly have it to hand the next time I teach The Duchess.'
Sixteenth Century Journal

Luckyj's extremely comprehensive and varied collection of essays will ensure that no teacher of the play need feel that they are going into a wilderness.

This new collection offers a dense, yet surprisingly easy-to-digest survey of literature that I would recommend to any person teaching or researching Webster.

From the Publisher