Shakespeare and the Natural World

Abstract

Exploring the rich range of meanings that Shakespeare finds in the natural world, this book fuses ecocritical approaches to Renaissance literature with recent thinking about the significance of religion in Shakespeare's plays. MacFaul offers a clear introduction to some of the key problems in Renaissance natural philosophy and their relationship to Reformation theology, with individual chapters focusing on the role of animals in Shakespeare's universe, the representation of rural life, and the way in which humans' consumption of natural materials transforms their destinies. These discussions enable powerful new readings of Shakespeare's plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, King Lear, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, and the history plays. Proposing that Shakespeare's representation of the relationship between man and nature anticipated that of the Romantics, this volume will interest scholars of Shakespeare studies, Renaissance drama and literature, and ecocritical studies of Shakespeare.

Environmental Renaissance Studies

“…One of the central figures of the surveys of Raber and O'Dair is Robert Watson, whose Back to Nature : The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance () explored the epistemological understanding of early modern human/non‐human relations via close historicist reading. Scholars who found Watson's work useful will find a similar starting point taken by Tom MacFaul, who, unlike Watson, concentrates largely on Shakespeare and argues that “he shows a continuing … hope that nature may have redemptive properties” (10). MacFaul's approach, like Watson's, takes full account of the complexities of early modern epistemology and the slipperiness of the concept of nature.…”

Satyrs, spirits, and Dionysian intemperance in Shakespeare’s Tempest

“…The Tempest thus provides its recipients with a paradigmatic set of Shakespeare's animals around which a productive field of studies has developed over the last two decades. 5 Although the role of The Tempest in the wider context of Shakespeare's use of animals has not been sufficiently examined to date -Andreas Höfele, 6 Shannon Kelley, 7 and Tom MacFaul 8 having merely opened the debate -my reading of the play merely touches on the theme of animality without delving into the philosophical questions raised by animal studies. Within the scope of this article, it is sufficient to note that all three rebels are associated with animality.…”