Reading literature through the looking glass of theory.
Typee by Herman Melville
Melville's Typee, tells the story of a sailor's time among the natives of an island in the Marquesas. It was based on Melville's own experience in the Marquesas in 1842, where he was stranded for f...
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The textual history of Shakespeare's plays is a total mess. We don't actually have any of his plays passed down to us in his own hand. In fact, we only have texts of Shakespeare's plays at all beca...
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Just like King Lear, Shakespeare's Hamlet exists in several versions: the First Quarto version, the Second Quarto version, and the Folio version. The First Quarto version is widely believed to...
The Gypsies Metamorphosed by Ben Jonson
The Gypsies Metamorphosed is a masque (a kind of court play involving music, fancy costumes, and dancing) by Ben Jonson, an English playwright who lived between 1572-1637. At one point in the...
The Tragicall History of D. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Here's another play about devils. It's Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and it's the story of the brilliant Faustus, who makes a pact with the devil: he gives him his soul in exchange for know...