Research Catalog

Of human kindness : what Shakespeare teaches us about empathy

Title
Of human kindness : what Shakespeare teaches us about empathy / Paula Marantz Cohen.
Author
Cohen, Paula Marantz, 1953-
Publication
New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2021]

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JFD 21-1970Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
x, 159 pages; 22 cm
Summary
While exploring Shakespeare's plays with her students, Paula Marantz Cohen discovered that teaching and discussing his plays unlocked a surprising sense of compassion in the classroom. In this short and illuminating book, she shows how Shakespeare's genius lay with his ability to arouse empathy, even when his characters exist in alien contexts and behave in reprehensible ways.0Cohen takes her readers through a selection of Shakespeare's most famous plays, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice, to demonstrate the ways in which Shakespeare thought deeply and clearly about how we treat "the other." Cohen argues that only through close reading of Shakespeare can we fully appreciate his empathetic response to race, class, gender, and age. Wise, eloquent, and thoughtful, this book is a forceful argument for literature's power to champion what is best in us.
Subject
  • Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Characters
  • Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
  • Empathy in literature
  • Kindness in literature
  • Characters and characteristics
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Shakespeare's empathetic imagination -- Richard III: unrealized potential -- Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V: beginning -- The merchant of Venice: blueprint -- As you like it: gender -- Hamlet: self -- Othello: race and class -- King Lear: age -- easure for measure: a world without empathy -- Antony and Cleopatra: wider vistas -- The winter's tale: across generations.
Call Number
JFD 21-1970
ISBN
  • 9780300256413
  • 0300256418
OCLC
1184236084
Author
Cohen, Paula Marantz, 1953- author.
Title
Of human kindness : what Shakespeare teaches us about empathy / Paula Marantz Cohen.
Publisher
New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2021]
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Research Call Number
JFD 21-1970
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