Publisher's Synopsis
This book traces some intriguing manifestations of trickery and subversion across the entire Shakespearean canon introducing some radically unconventional interpretations of specific texts. By isolating a principle of subversiveness that cuts across the standard categories, Hillman relates disparate aspects of the plays, and delineates broad patterns of development. In "Shakespearean Subversions" such obviously subversive character-types as the Clown, Fool and Machiavellian villain are incorporated into a broader concern with disruptive energy. The book begins by situating the central idea in relation to a number of theoretical positions, including New Historicism, Cultural Materialism and Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque.
