A New Mimesis; Shakespeare and the Representation of Reality

In pursuit of a powerful, common-sense argument about realism, renowned scholar A. D. Nuttall discusses English eighteenth-century and French neo-classical conceptions of realism, and considersJulius Caesar,Coriolanus,The Merchant of Venice,Othello, and both parts ofKing Henry IVas a prolonged feat of mimesis, with particular emphasis on Shakespeare's perception of society and culture as subject to historical change. Shakespeare is chosen as the great example of realism because he addresses not only the stable characteristics but also the flux of things, and he is thus seen as a perceiver of that flux and not a mere specimen. An acknowledged classic of literary studies,A New Mimesisis reissued here with a new preface by the author.

A. D. Nuttall is professor of English at Oxford University and the author of numerous books, including Shakespeare the Thinker, published by Yale University Press, A Common Sky: Philosophy and the Literary Imagination, and Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure?