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In this slim, poetically powerful volume, Piero Boitani develops his earlier work in The Bible and Its Rewritings, focusing on Shakespeare’s “rescripturing” of the Gospels. Boitani persuasively urges that Shakespeare read the New Testament with great care and an overall sense of affirmation and participation, and that many of his plays constitute their own original testament, insofar as they translate the good news into human terms. In Hamlet and King Lear, he suggests, Shakespeare’s "New Testament" is merely hinted at, and faith, salvation, and peace are only glimpsed from far away. But in Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest, the themes of compassion and forgiveness, transcendence, immanence, the role of the deity, resurrection, and epiphany are openly, if often obliquely, staged. The Christian Gospels and the Christian Bible are the signposts of this itinerary.
Originally published in 2009, Boitani's Il Vangelo Secondo Shakespeare was awarded the 2010 De Sanctis Prize, a prestigious Italian literary award. Now available for the first time in an English translation, The Gospel according to Shakespeare brings to a broad scholarly and nonscholarly audience Boitani's insights into the current themes dominating the study of Shakespeare's literary theology. It will be of special interest to general readers interested in Shakespeare’s originality and religious perspective.
“In The Gospel According to Shakespeare, Piero Boitani offers a close critical look at William Shakespeare’s ‘re-scripturing’ of the Gospels in his work. For Boitani, Shakespeare’s works are a meditation ‘on providence, on forgiveness, and on goodness and happiness’ and this is achieved ‘in Christian terms'. . . Boitani argues that Shakespeare, particularly in his plays after Hamlet, is engaged in creating his own Gospel.” —Parergon
Piero Boitani is professor of comparative literature at the University of Rome "La Sapienza." He is the author of numerous books, including The Genius to Improve an Invention: Literary Transitions (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002).
Note on the Texts
Preface to the American Edition
Introduction
1. Amen for the Fall of a Sparrow
2. God’s Spies
3. Music of the Spheres
4. Divineness
5. Resurrection
6. Epiphany
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index