Narrating the Visual in Shakespeare

Examines Shakespeare's fascination with the art of narrative and the visuality of language. This book complicates our conception of Shakespeare as either a 'man of the theatre' or a 'literary dramatist', suggesting ways in which his works themselves debate the question of text versus performance.'Recommended.' Choice '[Narrating the Visual in Shakespeare] is a fine, scholarly achievement and an important contribution to a revival of interest in the relationships between visual culture, drama, and indeed rhetoric, in the early modern period.' Shakespeare Survey 2010 'In this ambitious study Richard Meek offers a rethinking of Shakespeare's use of ekphrasis [...] and the creative capital Shakespeare makes of the ambiguity of representation in poetry and drama. ... the originality of Meek's approach lies in his readiness to link [ekphrasis] with Shakespeare's broader project of 'narrating the visual'... One of the book's strengths is its readiness to pose difficult questions. The reading of the final scene of The Winter's Tale is exemplary of Meek's method... Meek's is one of the clearest expositions of the complex meditation on the ambivalences of art that Shakespeare performs in this text... [A] brilliant study.' Modern Language Review 'Meek offers a highly nuanced analysis of [The Winter's Tale's] complex representation of the relationship between narrative and drama, and the unreliability of both... Meek's excellent essay beautifully shows that there is much more to the spectacular effects of The Winter's Tale than meets the eye.' Year's Work in English Studies With an awareness of the visual, the aural and the kinaesthetic (in addition to the conventionally privileged written and read) permeating much that is done in secondary and higher education, Narrating the Visual in Shakespeare deserves a wide readership in Literature, Theatre Studies and Education departments: it is a thoroughly researched, thought-provoking and accomplished work.' Catherine M.S. Alexander, Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik