| Broken Symmetries: A Study of Agency in Shakespeare's Plays Contributor(s): Schachterle, Lance (Editor), Freund, John (Author) |
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ISBN: 0820415057 ISBN-13: 9780820415055 Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publi OUR PRICE: $50.30 Product Type: Hardcover Published: March 1992 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Drama | Shakespeare - Drama | European - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Dewey: 822.33 |
| LCCN: 91-30845 |
| Series: Worcester Polytechnic Institute Studies in Science, Technolo |
| Physical Information: 214 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This important study makes a convincing case for its thesis that the dramatic form of Shakespeare's plays corresponds to that of a natural system evolving to a more complex state while undergoing symmetry breaking. Drawing upon such key concepts of chaos theory as "global agency and self-similarity," the book constructs a methodology which illuminates many problematic aspects of agency in the selected comedies, tragedies, and histories it examines. Each of these genres is shown to reflect the paradoxical dynamics of a chaotic system. This fresh -systems perspective- offers a serious challenge to the structuralist assumptions underlying many current literary approaches." |