Shakespeare and the Theatre of Wonder

Playwrights throughout history have used the emotion of wonder to explore the relation between feeling and knowing in the theatre. In Shakespeare and the Theatre of Wonder, T. G. Bishop argues that wonder provides a turbulent space, rich at once in emotion and self-consciousness, where the nature and value of knowing is brought into question. Bishop compares the treatment of wonder in classical philosophy and drama, and goes on to examine English cycle-plays, charting wonder’s ambivalent relation to dogma and sacrament in the medieval religious theatre. Through extended readings of three of Shakespeare’s plays - The Comedy of Errors, Pericles and The Winter’s Tale - Bishop argues that Shakespeare uses wonder as a key component of his dialectic between affirmation and critique. Wonder is shown as vital to the characteristic self-consciousness of Shakespeare’s plays as acts of narrative enquiry and renovation.

• Provides alternative insight into the work of Shakespeare, in the context of the use of wonder as a powerful theatrical emotion • Full study of a central, but neglected, aspect of theatre • Detailed readings of three Shakespeare plays set in their cultural context

Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Theory of wonder; theatre of wonder; 2. Vision and vocation in the theatre of God; 3. Compounding ‘Errors’; 4. Pericles; or, the past as fate and miracle; 5. The Winter’s Tale; or, filling up the graves; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.