Tamburlaine: A Critical Reader

by David McInnis (Editor), Andrew Hiscock (Editor), Lisa Hopkins (Editor)

Overview

Arden Early Modern Drama Guides offer students and academics practical and accessible introductions to the critical and performance contexts of key Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Essays from leading international scholars give invaluable insight into the text by presenting a range of critical perspectives, making the books ideal companions for study and research.

Key features include:
Essays on the plays' critical and performance history
A keynote essay on current research and thinking about the play
A selection of new essays by leading scholars
A survey of resources to direct students' further reading about the play in print and online

The blockbuster Tamburlaine plays (1587) instantly established Marlowe's reputation for experimenting with subversive, outrageous and immoral material. The plays follow the meteoric rise of a Scythian shepherd-turbaned-warlord, whose conquests of eastern emperors soon sees him established as the most powerful man in the world. The visual tableaux featured in the plays are iconic. He uses his enemy Bajazeth as a footstool, and has other emperors pull his chariot like horses. He burbans the Qur'an on stage. The plays were memorable, too, for how they sounded: they showcased the power and variability of iambic pentameter, the meter that Shakespeare would go on to perfect. No history of Shakespeare's theatre is complete without understanding the influence and significance of Marlowe's Tamburlaine plays.

Tamburlaine: A Critical Reader offers the definitive introduction to these plays and new perspectives on these seminal works. It provides an overview of their reception on stage and by critics, and offers fresh insights into the teaching of these plays in the classroom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350246652
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/27/2022
Series:	Arden Early Modern Drama Guides
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

David McInnis is Associate Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at the University of Melbourbane, Australia.

Contributors include Claire M. L. Bourbane (Pennsylvania State University, USA), Matthew Dimmock (University of Sussex, UK), Peter Kirwan (University of Nottingham, UK), Tom Rutter (University of Sheffield, UK), Liam E. Semler (University of Sydney, Australia), M. L. Stapleton (Purdue University, USA), Sydnee Wagner (City University of New York, USA) and Sarah Wall-Randell (Wellesley College, USA).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Series Introduction
Notes on Contributors
Introduction David McInnis, University of Melbourbane, Australia
1 Tamburlaine, 1587-2000: A Reception History M. L. Stapleton, Purdue University, USA
2 'The Critical Landscape, 2000-Present' Sarah Wall-Randell, Wellesley College, USA
3 'High astounding terms': Tamburlaine and Tamburlaine on stage Peter Kirwan, University of Nottingham, UK
4 New Directions: Mending Tamburlaine Claire M. L. Bourbane, Pennsylvania State University, USA
5 New Directions: Tamburlaine the Weather Man Tom Rutter, University of Sheffield, UK
6 New Directions: Towards a Racialized TamburlaineSydnee Wagner, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA
7 New Directions: Retooling Timür Matthew Dimmock, University of Sussex, UK
8 Three Tents for Tamburlaine: Resources and Approaches for Teaching the Play Liam E. Semler, University of Sydney, Australia
Works Cited and Selected Further Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

The true genius of this collection is in its Janusian perspective ... Tamburlaine: A Critical Reader serves as a concise but impressive review of Tamburlaine's history in past decades, a time capsule recording the current state of the field, and an optimistic forecast of what we may see in decades to come.” —Marlowe Society of America

From the Publisher