Brief Description
A debate about the relationship between playgoing and the cultural life of Shakespeare's England.
Learn More about the Book
How was the experience of watching a play influenced by practices beyond the walls of the playhouse, and what were the broader social and historical implications of the culture of playgoing? This book sets out to answer such questions. Since the two authors have very different perspectives on the issues discussed, they have chosen a unique format: rather than submerging their opposition, they have highlighted it. Their attacks and counter-attacks, as they contest each other's views in paired chapters, result in a lively and illuminating debate.
About the Authors
Anthony B. Dawson is Professor of English at the University of British Columbia.
Paul Yachnin is Professor of English at the University of British Columbia.
Review Quotes
1. "This extraordinarily intersting and important book is a collaborative effort...given the intelligence, sophistication and charm with which Dawson and Yachin sustain their own contradictory positions, The Culture of Playgoing in Shakespeare's England allows readers to move in and out of radically different convictions-an experience not unlike the pleasures afforded by Renaissance drama itself." Journal of English and Germanic Philology
2. 'This study of theatre and drama in relation to the culture of Shakespeare's time is intellectually sophisticated, historically informed and engagingly written. Thoroughly up to date in its scholarship and original in its critical approach, it has much to say to students of the period. Its interest lies both in the dialectic of the discrete theoretical approaches of the two authors, and in its practical criticism, sometimes from differing perspectives, of specific plays by both Shakespeare and contemporary dramatists. The most unusual feature of the book ... is the division of authorship from chapter to chapter. This frequently leads to stimulating debate, and especially to a valuable emphasis on the relativity of critical truth, the fact that history looks different when viewed from one perspective rather than another.' Stanley Wells
3. "As a two-author book, The Culture of Playgoing offers its readers an experience of contemporary cultural studies thrown into unusually high relief. It is an ambitious book..." Sixteenth Century Journal
4. "This elegantly written volume is made especially intriguing by a structure that permits its two authors to debate in separate essays the intricate cultural questions raised in imagining Shakespeareas audience...Aimed at a sophisticated reader, it will be of most use to upper-division students and faculty. For this audience, it will provide rich pleasure by raising as many intriguing questions as it answers." Choice
