Marshall Grossman, University of Maryland
An exhilarating ride . . . simply the best, most poetically and historically intelligent reading of the sonnets since Shakespeare's Perjured Eye.

Review
"Freinkel's style is artful and original, her research is comprehensive, and her assertions are intriguing... her detailed observations and commentary read and reread Shakespeare's figurative language from multiple perspectives, which illustrate her postmodern celebration of the undying ambiguity of figural interpretation." -- Gayle Gaskill, Renaissance Quarterly

Review
" Reading Shakespeare's Will is an exhilarating ride... an important and timely book that includes simply the best, most poetically and historically intelligent reading of the sonnets since Shakespeare's Perjured Eye." -- Marshall Grossman, University of Maryland

Book Description
The most influential treatments of Shakespeare's Sonnets have ignored the impact of theology on his poetics, examining instead the poet's "secular" emphasis on psychology and subjectivity. Reading Shakespeare's Will offers the first systematic account of the theology behind the poetry. Investigating the poetic stakes of Christianity's efforts to assimilate Jewish scripture, the book reads Shakespeare through the history of Christian allegory.To "read Shakespeare's will," Freinkel argues, is to read his bequest to and from a literary history saturated by religious doctrine. Freinkel thus challenges the common equation of subjectivity with secularity, and defines Shakespeare's poetic voice in theological rather than psychoanalytic terms. Tracing from Augustine to Luther the religious legacy that informs Shakespeare's work, Freinkel suggests that we cannot properly understand his poetry without recognizing it as a response to Luther's Reformation. Delving into the valences and repercussions of this response, Reading Shakespeare's Will charts the notion of a "theology of figure" that helped to shape the themes, tropes, and formal structures of Renaissance literature and thought.

About the Author
Lisa Freinkel is assistant professor of English at the University of Oregon.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The most influential treatments of Shakespeare´s Sonnets have ignored the impact of theology on his poetics, examining instead the poet´s "secular" emphasis on psychology and subjectivity. Reading Shakespeare´s Will offers the first systematic account of the theology behind the poetry. Investigating the poetic stakes of Christianity´s efforts to assimilate Jewish scripture, the book reads Shakespeare through the history of Christian allegory.To "read Shakespeare´s will," Freinkel argues, is to read his bequest to and from a literary history saturated by religious doctrine. Freinkel thus challenges the common equation of subjectivity with secularity, and defines Shakespeare´s poetic voice in theological rather than psychoanalytic terms. Tracing from Augustine to Luther the religious legacy that informs Shakespeare´s work, Freinkel suggests that we cannot properly understand his poetry without recognizing it as a response to Luther´s Reformation. Delving into the valences and repercussions of this response, Reading Shakespeare´s Will charts the notion of a "theology of figure" that helped to shape the themes, tropes, and formal structures of Renaissance literature and thought.

SYNOPSIS

Freinkel (English, U. of Oregon) reads Shakespeare's will as the intentionality of a historical writing agent, and Will as a proper name that comprises the authoritative mark of that agent for readers, in order to present something like a history of Hegel's dilemma that truth is whole and universal but any expression of it must necessarily be constrained in history and other dimensions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

FROM THE CRITICS

Marshall Grossman