Shakespeare's Individualism

Providing a provocative and original perspective on Shakespeare Peter Holbrook argues that Shakespeare is an author friendly to such essentially modern and unruly notions as individuality freedom self-realization and authenticity. These expressive values vivify Shakespeare''s own writing; they also form a continuous and a central part of the Shakespearean tradition. Engaging with the theme of the individual will in specific plays and poems and examining a range of libertarian-minded scholarly and literary responses to Shakespeare over time Shakespeare''s Individualism advances the proposition that one of the key reasons for reading Shakespeare today is his commitment to individual liberty - even as we recognize that freedom is not just an indispensable ideal but also potentially a dangerous one. Engagingly written and jargon free this book demonstrates that Shakespeare has important things to say about fundamental issues of human existence.