Shakespeare's History Plays : Rethinking Historicism

Divine Courtesy: Providence and Human Language in Shakespeare's History Plays

“…Jack Cade is not a cipher for disorder in a contrastive pair with civic order, as the providentialist reading suggests, since there is no firm civic order to allow the contrast. 16 The conquest of Richmond does not stand as any sort of final 'message' to the plays, since his coming has so little connection to the intrigues and appeals of the prior plays. In a word, 'there is, finally, no ultimate solution to the complex problems that are presented to the human condition by history and politics.'…”

Gender Stereotypes in Historical Biographical Novels for Children and Young Adults

“…(Trupe 2006: v-vi;Falconer 2010: 87-89). Authors of contemporary historical novels, in addition to connecting the past with the present (Moniot 1993;Silvio 1995;Spivak 1993), while relying on historical sources and accepted patterns of historical explanation (Rüsen 2000;Gerrig 1994;Ruprecht 1997), often challenge the nature of history by rewriting silenced histories, meaning deliberately omitted, incomplete, or inaccurate histories, such as those of women, with the help of fictional elements blended with historical material (Sangster 1994;Greenblatt 1980;Barry 2009;Parvini 2012). What is also interesting is that contemporary writers produce texts that challenge readers' conceptions of history and the world, and resist the dominant discourse of patriarchal history, while trying to deconstruct the gendered identity that is constructed by patriarchy (Humez & Crumpacker 1979;Keen 2006a: 179;Wake 2016).…”