Comparative Drama, 2016

2014

An undergraduate lecture in a module on Literature and History. References are to the World's Classics edition of RICHARD III, ed. John Jowett, Oxford UP, 2000.

Linguaculture

The discovery of the body of the historical Richard III under a Leicester car park in 2012 sparked fresh interest in one of England’s most controversial kings. Accused of murdering his nephews—the Princes in the Tower—Richard’s reign was cut short when he was defeated by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII), at the Battle of Bosworth (1485). Richard was subsequently demonised in Tudor historiography, perhaps most famously by Sir Thomas More in his “History of King Richard the thirde” (printed 1557). It is to More that we owe the popular image of Richard III as a “croke backed” and “malicious” villain (More 37), an image which Shakespeare has been accused of further codifying and popularising in his

This study is an attempt to explore the intrinsic behavior of Richard, the tragic hero of Shakespeare’s renowned historical play Richard III. This paper interprets deformity is a cause or excuse behind Richard’s wickedness that leads him towards his appalling disaster. It further evaluates the internal conflicts of Richard’s mind, his lust for the throne and riches, and his ferocity to attain his lustful desires. The paper investigates whether Richard used his physical malformation as a defending tool or it is mere hindrance in his goodness. It also throws light on how Richard defends his wicked nature by blaming his deformity. The researcher critically studies the psyche of the genius but evil character through social and psychological perspective. The finding of the paper suggests that deformity reflects Richard’s inward nature full of evil and vices and turns to be the real cause behind his abysmal calamity. Richard’s malicious disability is the clear example of his inward evil.

Fifteenth Century King Richard III of England has had bad press since the Tudor dynasty supplanted the last of the Plantagenets with the ascention of Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Shakespeare painted Richard as an evil hunch-backed child murderer who performed the most despicable deeds for his own gains. However history can and has been warped and molded to suite those who take the power and we can and should question the verity of important historic events. This paper explores the historical figure of Richard III and attempts to separate "real" history from "fake news" history, in order to perhaps partly vindicate this much maligned monarch.

Raber and Dugan ed., Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Animal Studies, 2020

This chapter offers a brief critical history of Shakespeare’s Richard II moving from mid-twentieth-century new critical analyses to contemporary ecocritical and animal sensitive ones. It traces differences, but also links, between presentist ecocritical and historicist animal studies readings, and offers a new interpretation of the play through a focus on its horses. This interpretation, informed by the emergence of skeptical ideas in the late sixteenth century, suggests an alternative possibility at the end of the play to that offered by recent critical analyses that figure this moment in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy as marking a shift in conceptions of subjectivity and of the natural world.