Reading Renaissance Drama: A Process Approach

Reading Renaissance Drama deals directly with the processes and problems inherent in reading plays, a genre far more indeterminate than fiction. It focuses on the expectations, hypotheses, and problems of readers as they interact sequentially with the text. Because the book preserves the stages of the reading process rather than subsuming them into a final interpretation of the text, it has special value for teaching. It demystifies literary analysis and promotes dynamic interaction with the text. Most important, the emphasis on process makes it possible to discriminate among conflicting critical opinions. Although the study emphasizes Renaissance drama, in particular Jonson, Middleton, and Marlowe, its strategies and perceptions are applicable to drama in general.