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Full Description
The best conception of love, Marcus Nordlund contends, and hence the best framework for its literary analysis, must be a fusion of evolutionary, cultural, and historical explanation. It is within just such a biocultural nexus that Nordlund explores Shakespeare's treatment of different forms of love. His approach leads to a valuable new perspective on Shakespearean love and, more broadly, on the interaction between our common humanity and our historical contingency as they are reflected, recast, transformed, or even suppressed in literary works. After addressing critical issues about love, biology, and culture raised by his method, Nordlund considers four specific forms of love in seven of Shakespeare's plays. Examining the vicissitudes of parental love in ""Titus Andronicus"" and ""Coriolanus"", he argues that Shakespeare makes a sustained inquiry into the impact of culture and society upon the natural human affections. King Lear offers insight into the conflicted relationship between love and duty. In two problem plays about romantic love, ""Troilus and Cressida"" and ""All's Well that Ends Well"", the tension between individual idiosyncrasies and social consensus becomes especially salient. And finally, in ""Othello"" and ""The Winter's Tale"", Nordlund asks what Shakespeare can tell us about the dark avatar of jealousy.
Contents
Introduction; 1. THE NATURE OF LOVE; Can Love Be Defined?; The Three Boundaries of Love; Evolving Love; Putting Sex Back in Gender; Love and Culture; 2. PARENTAL LOVE IN TWO ROMAN TRAGEDIES; Parenting Old and New; Titus Andronicus; Coriolanus; 3. FILIAL LOVE IN KING LEAR; Filial Love; How to Divide a Kingdom; The Childish King; Love and Duty; Is There Any Cause in Nature...?; 4. ROMANTIC LOVE IN TWO PROBLEM PLAYS; Troilus and Cressida; All's Well That Ends Well; 5. JEALOUSY IN OTHELLO; The Nature of Jealousy; ""One not easily Jealous""?; Conclusion.
