In this book, Simon Palfrey offers a brilliant new model for understanding Shakespeare, and an experimental, essayistic, and probing new reading of "King Lear." By interweaving two modes of analysis (a moment-by-moment critique of Edgar/Tom s scenes, alternating with more extended meditations upon philosophical, theological, and political possibilities generated by the action in those scenes), Palfrey emphasizes just how restless and not limited to convention the characters of Edgar and Tom areindeed, a reflection of ...
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In this book, Simon Palfrey offers a brilliant new model for understanding Shakespeare, and an experimental, essayistic, and probing new reading of "King Lear." By interweaving two modes of analysis (a moment-by-moment critique of Edgar/Tom s scenes, alternating with more extended meditations upon philosophical, theological, and political possibilities generated by the action in those scenes), Palfrey emphasizes just how restless and not limited to convention the characters of Edgar and Tom areindeed, a reflection of Shakespeare s own restless nature. By comparing Edgar (a representative of survival and of the future) and Tom (i.e., Edgar in disguise, a symbol of history and the burden of the past), Palfrey shows how Shakespeare pushed the possibilities of the theater and theatrical life far beyond what would customarily be allowed in Elizabethan England and on stage. The Edgar/Tom character represents the split/splice, here/not here fluidity of both the text and the live performance, and is an example of just how modern, yea, future-looking Shakespeare was for his time. In Edgar/Tom s interactions with Lear, Palfrey shows us Shakespeare as a radical, an experimental writer and thinker who is constantly questioning what can and cannot be known, what can and cannot exist, and what it means, finally, to liveand "live through""King Lear.""
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