Looking for sex in Shakespeare

Resource Information

The work Looking for sex in Shakespeare represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Liverpool. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Looking for sex in Shakespeare

Statement of responsibility

by Stanley Wells

Creator

• Wells, Stanley, 1930-

Subject

• Sex in literature
• Sexual orientation in literature
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
• Homosexuality and literature -- England
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation.
• Sonnets, English -- History and criticism
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation

Language

eng

Summary

"Stanley Wells' new book considers how far sexual meaning in Shakespeare's writing is a matter of interpretation by actors, directors and critics. Tracing interpretations of Shakespearian bawdy and innuendo from eighteenth-century editors to modern scholars and critics, Wells plays special attention to recent sexually oriented studies of A Midsummer Night's Dream, once regarded as the most innocent of its author's plays. He considers the sonnets, some of which are addressed to a man, and asks whether they imply same-sex desire in the author, or are quasi-dramatic projections of the writer's imagination. Finally, he looks at how male-to-male relationships in the plays have been interpreted as sexual in both criticism and performance. Stanley Wells's book will appeal to a broad readership of students, theatregoers and Shakespeare lovers."--BOOK JACKET

Cataloging source

DLC

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction