法庭上的莎士比亚

by Quentin Skinner, 昆廷·斯金纳, 罗宇维 (Translator)

本书是享誉世界的历史学家、思想史巨擘昆廷·斯金纳关于莎士比亚修辞学的研究力作。作者通过对《罗密欧与朱丽叶》《威尼斯商人》《裘利斯·凯撒》《哈姆莱特》等作品中人物语言的分析，从修辞术的角度对经典的莎士比亚法庭剧加以重新审视，解释了莎士比亚创作过程。

通常人们认为莎士比亚拥有司法才能，赞美他直接呈现生活等，但在斯金纳看来，这些观点是不正确的。莎士比亚之所以能创作出这些法庭剧，在于他所接受的当时极为普遍的修辞术教育，这使得他掌握一整套修辞术规则并将其运用到戏剧创作中来。本书以精妙的结构、丰富的史实和出色的论证，考察了修辞术在文艺复兴思想史中的地位，是斯金纳超越以往政治学著作的别具一格的思想史研究与实践。

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, History, Literary Criticism

500 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2014

About the author

Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was elected to a Fellowship upon obtaining a double-starred first in History, Quentin Skinner accepted, however, a teaching Fellowship at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he taught until 2008, except for four years in the 1970s spent at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1978 he was appointed to the chair of Political Science at Cambridge University, and subsequently regarded as one of the two principal members (along with J.G.A. Pocock) of the influential 'Cambridge School' of the history of political thought, best known for its attention to the 'languages' of political thought.

Skinner's primary interest in the 1970s and 1980s was the modern idea of the state, which resulted in two of his most highly regarded works, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume I: The Renaissance and The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume II: The Age of Reformation.

Reviews

[James Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and found it immensely interesting. The core thesis: that Shakespeare's education in classical rhetoric and the continuing influence of that rhetoric in contemporary judicial activity, played a very substantive role in shaping some of Shakespeare's plays was very persuasively made.

I especially enjoyed the material of the first section exploring how Cicero, Quintilian, ad Herennium, had understood rhetoric and how these writers had influenced the education system. I have always enjoyed studying how the Classics influence Shakespeare ( I would definitely recommend Burrows Shakespeare and Classical Antiquity (Oxford Shakespeare Topics)).

The narrow focus on seven or eight plays was interesting in that it reiterates the idea that Shakespeare's work comes in phases and that the contemporary literary world and he were in dialectic as was his education and his cultural context. It also meant that I had read all of the plays he focuses on (except one and I felt compelled to read that one) and this was definitely necessary: Skinner feels only a limited need to give any gloss on who characters are or what the plot is doing, the names appear and their ideas discussed, which is what one expects in an academic study.

I would definitely recommend this book and, for those who may need a brief introductory blast to the plays beforehand, Emma Smiths's Podcasts from Oxford on the plays, which covers most of these (https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/appr...).

[mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has much to offer one like me
A scholar in so much but not the Bard,
For in these times persuasive one must be
Authorities dead set to make life hard.

In rhetoric we find a classic way
That slings and arrows could miss wide their mark.
A winning case is brief, one ne'er re-say
But on this point the tome's misstep is stark
It never endeth.

(I still learned a lot though. So three stars.)

[Muhammad Ahmad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Garry Wills's "Rome and Rhetoric: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar" this book is based on lectures. But for all its erudition, it gets too deep into the weeds to maintain the lay reader's interest. Many useful insights about how closely Shakespeare's rhetoric echoed the rules of rhetoric taught into contemporary and classical texts. But the book would have benefited vastly from the kind of economy with which Wills presents his case.

[Hollyann Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book on how Shakespeare captured human nature within his plays.

[Éowyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forensic doesn't mean this is the Shakespeare equivalent of Silent Witness - this is a book looking at a group of Shakespeare's plays (and one poem), of which several are often considered 'problem' plays and the use of rhetoric within them. Skinner argues that this is deliberate and relates to a re-emerging interest in the Roman Rhetoricians in the Tudor period. The book is based on a series of lectures given by Skinner, so although as a casual reader I found it interesting, it was also hard work at times, particularly the opening chapters.