{"product_id":"a-theatre-of-envy-william-shakespeare-odeon-9780195053395","title":"A Theatre of Envy: William Shakespeare (Odeon)","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this groundbreaking work  one of our foremost literary and cultural critics turns to the major figure in English literature  William Shakespeare  and proposes a dramatic new reading of nearly all his plays and poems. The key to A Theater of Envy is Rene Girards novel reinterpretation of \"mimesis.\" For Girard  people desire objects not for their intrinsic value  but because they are desired by someone else--we mime or imitate their desires. This envy--or \"mimetic desire\"--he sees as one of the foundations of the human condition. Bringing such provocative and iconoclastic insights to bear on Shakespeare  Girard reveals the previously overlooked coherence of problem plays like Troilus and Cressida  and makes a convincing argument for elevating A Midsummer Nights Dream from the status of a chaotic comedy to a masterpiece. The book abounds with novel and provocative interpretations: Shakespeare becomes \"a prophet of modern advertising \" and the threat of nuclear disaster is read in the light of Hamlet. Most intriguing of all  perhaps  is a brief  but brilliant aside in which an entirely new perspective is brought to the chapter in Joyces Ulysses in which Stephen Dedalus gives a lecture on Shakespeare. In Girards view only Joyce  perhaps the greatest of twentieth-century novelists  comes close to understanding the greatest of Renaissance playwrights. Throughout this impressively sustained reading of Shakespeare Girards prose is sophisticated  but contemporary  and accessible to the general reader. Anyone interested in literature  anthropology  or psychoanalysis will want to read this challenging book. And all those involved in theatrical production and performance will find A Theater of Envy full of suggestive new ideas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67896541413429,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195053397","price":221.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195053395.jpg?v=1793777014","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/a-theatre-of-envy-william-shakespeare-odeon-9780195053395","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}