{"product_id":"reading-shakespeare-reading-me-9781531507312","title":"Reading Shakespeare Reading Me","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA gripping, funny, joyful account of how the books you read shape your own life in surprising and profound ways.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBookworms know what scholars of literature are trained to forget: that when they devour a work of literary fiction, whatever else they may be doing, they are reading about themselves. Read Shakespeare, and you become Cleopatra, Hamlet, or Bottom. Or at the very least, you experience the plays as if you are in a small room alone with them, and they are speaking to your life, your sensibility. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on fifty years as a Shakespearean, Leonard Barkan has produced a captivating book that asks us to reconsider what it means to read. Barkan violates the rule of distance he was taught and has always taught his students. He asks: Where does this brilliantly contrived fiction actually touch \u003ci\u003eme\u003c\/i\u003e? Where is Shakespeare in effect telling the story of my life? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e, for Barkan, raises unanswerable questions about what exactly a father does after planting the seed. Mothers from Gertrude to Lady Macbeth are reconsidered in the light of the author's experience as a son of a former flapper. The sonnets and comedies are seen through the eyes of a gay man who nevertheless weeps with joy when all the heterosexual couples are united at the end. \u003ci\u003eA Midsummer Night's Dream \u003c\/i\u003eis interpreted through the author's joyous experience of performing the role of Bottom and finding his aesthetic faith in the pantheon of antiquity. And the exquisitely poetical history play \u003ci\u003eRichard II \u003c\/i\u003eintersects with, of all things, \u003ci\u003eRu Paul's Drag Race\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFull of engrossing stories, from family secrets to the world of the theater, and written with humor and genuine excitement about literary experiences worthy of our attention and our love, \u003ci\u003eReading Shakespeare Reading Me \u003c\/i\u003emakes Shakespeare's plays come alive in new ways.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Fordham University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/02\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781531507312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.98lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.66d","brand":"Leonard Barkan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44112815063221,"sku":"9781531507312","price":16.96,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_7224adc7-fc56-4881-9b03-263870fd02bb.jpg?v=1715054574","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/reading-shakespeare-reading-me-9781531507312","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}