Synopses & Reviews
The Tempest has long dazzled readers and audiences with its intricate blend of magic, music, humour, intrigue and tenderness, its vibrant but ambiguous central characters. As Virginia and Alden Vaughan show, in their wide-ranging new edition of this established favourite, such antithetical extremes exemplify the playÂ's endlessly arguable nature, its appeal to diverse eras and cultures. The Vaughans situate The Tempest at the centre of changing cultural attitudes towards colonialism, power politics and patriarchal hierarchies, and demonstrate how the play both shaped and reflected those changing attitudes. Informed by the concerns of a post-colonial international community, their edition emphasizes the play's world-wide cultural appropriation, and includes an extensive discussion of the play's after-life as well as an appendix of selected appropriations. The interdisciplinary editorial approach contributes a distinctively blended cultural and historical focus. Â'The Vaughans have provided a valuable new edition of the play, one whose expanded contextualisation, especially, will contribute to The TempestÂ's lively and varied afterlife both within and beyond the classroom.Â' Barbara Fuchs, University of Washington, Seattle, Shakespeare Quarterly
Review
"The Vaughans have provided a valuable new edition of the play, one whose expanded contextualization, especially, will contribute to The Tempest's lively and varied afterlife both within and beyond the classroom...Extensive, up-to-date critical introduction that incorporates recent and even forthcoming scholarship...Te introduction provides a formidable range of materials for teachers, performers, and directors. The section on “The afterlife” of the text is especially strong, with a comprehensive survey of both stage and film productions, Particularly valuable is this sections geographical breadth...Lavish illustrations further enhance the production history. The notes to the text itself are copious and replete with useful information, from staging possibilities to related literary usages. They also refer frequently to previous editions, providing a virtual map of the texts editorial history. The notes...are a model of thorough scholarship."—Shakespeare Quarterly
Table of Contents
List of illustrations General Editors preface Preface INTRODUCTION The play - Genesis and early performances - Genre - Structure - Music - Language - Characters The context - Domestic politics - Brave new world - Africa and Ireland - Literary forerunners - Classical models - The salvage man - Magic - Masque The afterlife - Restoration rewritings - Eighteenth-century ambivalence - Romanticism - Perspectives on imperialism - Re-enter Miranda - Freudian influences - The Tempest on stage and film since 1900 The text - Ralph Crane?s manuscript - Editorial practice - Cruxes THE TEMPEST Appendix 1: Sources 1. Strachey, True Reportory 2. Montaigne, Of the Caniballes Appendix 2: Appropriations 1. Browning, Caliban upon Setebos 2. Rodo, Ariel 3. Mannoni, Prospero and Caliban Abbreviations and References Index