the merchant of venice new critical essays

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The Merchant of Venice Critical Essays

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This volume is a collection of all-new original essays covering everything from feminist to postcolonial readings of the play as well as source queries and analyses of historical performances of the play. The Merchant of Venice is a collection of seventeen new essays that explore the concepts of anti-Semitism, the work of Christopher Marlowe, the politics of commerce and making the play palatable to a modern audience. The characters, Portia and Shylock, are examined in fascinating detail. With in-depth analyses of the text, the play in performance and individual characters, this book promises to be the essential resource on the play for all Shakespeare enthusiasts.

Table of Contents

John Mahon is Professor of English at Iona College and Editor of the Shakespeare Newsletter . He received his PhD. in English from Columbia University. Ellen Mahin is Assistant Professor of English at Iona College. She attended NYU and received her PhD. in English from Fordham University.

Critics' Reviews

"The introductory overview of "The Fortunes of The Merchant of Venice from 1596-2001" alone is worth the price of the volume. In it, John Mahon surveys the major cruxes of the play with a clarity and an erudition that come from impressively wide reading. Nearly 100 pages and with a bibliography of 150 items, this survey is more comprehensive and judicious than the critical introductions one finds in the most scholarly editions of the play"." James Bulman, The Shakespeare Newsletter "Many of the seventeen essays, skillfully arranged by the editors, are both informative and provocative. Oppositional readings encourage one to view the play afresh." James Bulman, The Shakespeare Newsletter "Few of Shakespeare's plays trouble us now quite as much as The Merchant of Venice. Post-Holocaust, the play seems to have changed irrevocably. John and Ellen Mahon's fine collection of new critical essays brings a host of new insights into the play and its disturbing cultural history, helping us to think afresh about the difficult demands the play makes of its audiences and readers." Professor Peter Holland, Director, The Shakespeare Institute, The University of Birmingham, UK. "This volume will afford all students of the play--with abundant resources and much thought-provoking material. The volume clearly stands as a valuable addition to our various understandings of the play." Paul J. Voss, Christianity and Literature

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The Merchant of Venice: Critical Essays (Shakespeare Criticism) 1st Edition

This volume is a collection of all-new original essays covering everything from feminist to postcolonial readings of the play as well as source queries and analyses of historical performances of the play.

The Merchant of Venice is a collection of seventeen new essays that explore the concepts of anti-Semitism, the work of Christopher Marlowe, the politics of commerce and making the play palatable to a modern audience. The characters, Portia and Shylock, are examined in fascinating detail. With in-depth analyses of the text, the play in performance and individual characters, this book promises to be the essential resource on the play for all Shakespeare enthusiasts.

• ISBN-10 0415411009
• ISBN-13 978-0415411004
• Edition 1st
• Publication date August 2, 2002
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 1.07 x 9.2 inches
• Print length 472 pages
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

"The introductory overview of "The Fortunes of The Merchant of Venice from 1596-2001" alone is worth the price of the volume. In it, John Mahon surveys the major cruxes of the play with a clarity and an erudition that come from impressively wide reading. Nearly 100 pages and with a bibliography of 150 items, this survey is more comprehensive and judicious than the critical introductions one finds in the most scholarly editions of the play"." James Bulman, The Shakespeare Newsletter

"Many of the seventeen essays, skillfully arranged by the editors, are both informative and provocative. Oppositional readings encourage one to view the play afresh." James Bulman, The Shakespeare Newsletter

"Few of Shakespeare's plays trouble us now quite as much as The Merchant of Venice. Post-Holocaust, the play seems to have changed irrevocably. John and Ellen Mahon's fine collection of new critical essays brings a host of new insights into the play and its disturbing cultural history, helping us to think afresh about the difficult demands the play makes of its audiences and readers." Professor Peter Holland, Director, The Shakespeare Institute, The University of Birmingham, UK.

"This volume will afford all students of the play--with abundant resources and much thought-provoking material. The volume clearly stands as a valuable addition to our various understandings of the play." Paul J. Voss, Christianity and Literature

About the Author

John Mahon is Professor of English at Iona College and Editor of the Shakespeare Newsletter . He received his PhD. in English from Columbia University.

Ellen Mahin is Assistant Professor of English at Iona College. She attended NYU and received her PhD. in English from Fordham University.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (August 2, 2002)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 472 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0415411009
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0415411004
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.07 x 9.2 inches
• #2,420 in Shakespeare Literary Criticism
• #3,852 in English Literature
• #4,591 in Shakespeare Dramas & Plays

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The Merchant of Venice

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This volume is a collection of all-new original essays covering everything from feminist to postcolonial readings of the play as well as source queries and analyses of historical performances of the play.

The Merchant of Venice is a collection of seventeen new essays that explore the concepts of anti-Semitism, the work of Christopher Marlowe, the politics of commerce and making the play palatable to a modern audience. The characters, Portia and Shylock, are examined in fascinating detail. With in-depth analyses of the text, the play in performance and individual characters, this book promises to be the essential resource on the play for all Shakespeare enthusiasts.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 | 94  pages, the fortunes of the merchant of venice from 1596 to 2001, chapter 2 | 12  pages, shakespeare's merchant and marlowe's other play, chapter 3 | 38  pages, jewish daughters, chapter 4 | 20  pages, chapter 5 | 13  pages, textual deviancy in the merchant of venice, chapter 6 | 8  pages, portia and the ovidian grotesque, chapter 7 | 12  pages, does source criticism illuminate the problems of interpreting the merchant as a soured comedy, chapter 8 | 14  pages, shylock is content, chapter 9 | 12  pages, isolation to communion, chapter 10 | 58  pages, the less into the greater, chapter 11 | 22  pages, “nerissa teaches me what to believe”, chapter 12 | 19  pages, “mislike me not for my complexion”, chapter 13 | 28  pages, the merchant of venice and the politics of commerce, chapter 14 | 15  pages, names in the merchant of venice, chapter 15 | 5  pages, singing chords, chapter 16 | 12  pages, making the merchant of venice palatable for u.s. audiences, chapter 17 | 44  pages, shylock in performance, chapter 18 | 24  pages, portia performs.

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John W. Mahon and Ellen Macleod Mahon, eds. The Merchant of Venice: New Critical Essays.

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Michelle Ephraim, John W. Mahon and Ellen Macleod Mahon, eds. The Merchant of Venice: New Critical Essays. , Shakespeare Quarterly , Volume 55, Issue 4, Winter 2004, Pages 475–479, https://doi.org/10.1353/shq.2005.0026

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The Merchant of Venice: New Critical Essays. Edited by JOHN W. MAHON and ELLEN MACLEOD MAHON, New York and London: Routledge, 2002. Illus, Pp. xiv + 456. $95.00 cloth.

In his introduction to this volume of essays, coeditor John W, Mahon states ambitiously that he aims to give readers "a full historical and critical context" (1) of The Merchant of Venice over the past four centuries. With seventeen previously unpublished essays and Mahon's nearly one-hundred-page introductory overview, New Critical Essays (a recent addition to Routledge's Shakespeare Criticism series) delivers an impressive amount of material. The scope of the collection is limited, however, by the conservative decisions of its editors, which I will discuss below. Anticipating a reader new to critical practice, Mahon introduces his audience to both The Merchant of Venice and the interpretive camps of Shakespearean criticism more broadly. With a patient, methodical style, Mahon provides an expansive survey of the play's sources, its textual and critical history, its seminal theatrical and cinematic performances, and its prominent actors since its Elizabethan debut. A substantial section of the introduction devoted to modern commentary explicates the critical divide of two decades ago when liberal-humanist criticism gave way to "theory," which Mahon examines in subsections titled "Marxism," "Gendered Approaches," and "New Historicism/Post-colonialism." The essays in the collection provide examples of textual and source criticism, "theory" approaches, and traditional readings that revisit the critical landscape before 1980, when discussions of the play's thematic harmonies and typological allegories predominated. The collection's final four essays on recent performances continue Mahon's discussion of the play's stage and screen history throughout the world. Rich with detail, Mahon's expansive descriptions of adaptations and allusions-from a Japanese Kabuki version of the play in 1885 to Vincent Price's Theater of Blood to the Reduced Shakespeare Company-aptly prove his premise of the play's "infinite wealth of meaning" (80) in popular culture.

While Mahon emphasizes the broad context he brings to the play, in the first section of the introduction, tided "Basic Issues," he also foregrounds a specific historical and critical occasion for the collection. Raising the fascinating question of how the contemporary reader should understand the character of Shylock after the Holocaust of World War II, he first refutes charges of the play's anti-Semitism ("Whatever nuance...

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William shakespeare. the merchant of venice: new critical essays . eds. john w. mahon and ellen macleod mahon. new york: routledge, 2002. xiv + 456 pp. index, illus. $95. isbn: 0-415-92999-7..

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

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• Volume 57, Issue 1
• Thomas Moisan (a1)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1262501

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The Merchant of Venice : with new and updated critical essays and a revised bibliography

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The merchant of Venice : new critical essays

• John W. Mahon , E. Mahon
• Published 2006

The merchant of Venice : new critical essays

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• Acknowledgements Contributors General Editor's Introduction Introduction John W. Mahon and Ellen MacLeod Mahon
• 1. Shakespeare's Merchant and Marlowe's Other Play Murray J. Levitch
• 2. Jewish Daughters: The Question of Philo-Semitism in Elizabethan Drama John Ozark Holmer
• 3. Jessica John Drakakis
• 4. Textual Delivery in The Merchant of Venice John F. Andrews
• 5. Portia and the Ovidian Grotesque John W. Velz
• 6. Does Source-Criticism Illuminate the Problems of Interpreting The Merchant as a Soured Comedy? John K. Hale
• 7. Shylock Is Content: A Study in Salvation Hugh J. Short
• 8. Isolation to Communion: A Reading of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice Maryellen Keefe
• 9. The Less into the Greater: Emblem, Analogue and Deification in The Merchant of Venice John Cunnigham and Stephen Slimp
• 10. "Nerissa Teached Me What To Believe": Portia's Wifely Empowerment in The Merchant of Venice Corrine S. Abate
• 11. "Mislike Me Not For My Complexion": Whose Mislike? Shakespeare's? That of the Age? R.W. Desai
• 12. The Merchant of Venice and the Politics of Commerce Karoline Szatek
• 13. Names in The Merchant of Venice Palatable for US Audiences Gayle Gaskill
• 14. Shylock in Performance John O'Connor
• 15. Portia Performs: Playing the Role in the Twentieth-Century English Theater Penny Gay.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

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