Shakespeare and the Body Politic

Bernard J. Dobski is Associate Professor of Political Science at Assumption College, where he teaches courses in international relations, American politics and political philosophy, including a course on Shakespeare's politics. He received his BA from Boston College and his MA and Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He is the contributing co-editor of Souls With Longing: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare (Lexington Books, 2011) and of "The Political Thought of William Shakespeare" (special issue of Perspectives on Political Science, 2012). He has published book chapters, articles, reviews and review essays on Thucydides, Xenophon, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, American foreign policy and just war theory in POLIS: The Journal For Ancient Greek Political Thought, Perspectives on Political Science, The Review of Politics, Interpretation, Society and The Review of Metaphysics.Dustin Gish has published articles, book chapters, review essays, and reviews on a wide range of topics in the history of political philosophy, including the political thought of Homer, Xenophon, Plato, William Shakespeare, and Thomas Jefferson. He is the contributing co-editor of Souls With Longing: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare and of The Political Thought of Xenophon; his work has appeared in The Journal of Politics, History of Political Thought, Perspectives on Political Science, Polis, The Review of Politics, and Bryn Mawr Classical Review. He currently teaches ancient and early modern constitutionalism as Lecturer in the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage at the University of Oklahoma.

The chapters in Shakespeare and the Body Politic examine the tensions between the passion and ambition of individuals and the limits of the political communities that encompass and inform them. Shakespeare provides his audiences and readers both timely and timeless political lessons through his diverse portraits of the body politic in his plays and poetry-from ancient city-states of Greece and Rome to the early modern cities and kingdoms of his own time.

AcknowledgmentsPrefaceChapter 1: Shakespeare and the Body PoliticBernard J. Dobski and Dustin GishPart One: The HeartChapter 2: "The Very Heart of Loss": Love and Politics in Antony and CleopatraJoseph AlulisChapter 3: Julius Caesar: The Problem of Classical RepublicanismTimothy BurnsChapter 4: Who is Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?Nasser BehnegarChapter 5: Love, Honor,and Community in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietPamela JensenPart Two: The LimbsChapter 6: At War 'Twixt Will and Will Not: Government, Marriage, and Gracein Measure for MeasurePeter MeilaenderChapter 7: Trojan Horse or Troilus' Whore? Pandering Statecraft and Political Stagecraftin Troilus and CressidaNalin RanasingheChapter 8: Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece: Honor and RepublicanismRobert SchaeferChapter 9: Hotspur and Falstaff vs. The Politicians: Shakespeare's View of HonorTimothy SpiekermanPart Three: The HeadChapter 10: Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, and Philosophy: A Preliminary InquiryGeorge AnastaploChapter 11: Taming the Shrew: Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Political PhilosophyDustin GishChapter 12: The Education of Edgar in Shakespeare's King LearLaurence D. NeeChapter 13: Shakespeare and the Comedy and Tragedy of LiberalismDavid K. NicholsList of ContributorsIndex