Date of Award
Spring 1978
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
McCanles, Michael
Second Advisor
Stephens, James
Third Advisor
McCabe, John
Abstract
This study of Shakespeare's history plays goes beyond the older moral-historical oriented criticism which views the plays as polemical expressions of Tudor political orthodoxy, and describes with greater precision the ambiguities in kingship that recent critics of the plays have found. Proceeding from the conclusions of these recent critics of the histories, my dissertation shows that the characters' use of discourse about right exploits the rhetorical formulae which contemporary discussions about right employed in such a way as to evince the complexities and ambiguities of right and to criticize political language its elf.
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