Stephen Greenblatt

The act of critiquing the critic is never enviable, and is particularly difficult when said critic is a leading figure of a school of thought and system of practice. Robson (English, U. of Nottingham) does those new to the particulars of the new historicism great service by thoroughly explaining what this school of thought means within the current soup that includes such a wide variety of other forms of criticism. He is particularly helpful in explaining not only Greenblatt's body of work in terms of self-fashioning, social energy, resonance, wonder and imagination but also explains how Greenblatt's criticism of early modern work, especially Shakespeare, has served as model and guide as well as pure criticism. Robson keeps in mind that his readers are likely to include those in history, social and cultural studies, and he comments on social and political contexts as well as the links between Greenblatt and formalism, culture, theater and religion. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Mark Robson is Lecturer in English at the University of Nottingham. He is author of The Sense of Early Modern Writing (2006), co-author of Language in Theory (2005), and editor of Jacques Ranciere: Aesthetics, Politics, Philosophy (2005).