Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism)

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most popular tragedies and has provoked a rich diversity of interpretations. Definitively passionate, it is much more than the archetypal love story: the play tests the limits of tragedy and comedy, challenges gender roles and explores the nature of language.

In this Reader's Guide, Gillian Woods:

• surveys key critical responses to Romeo and Juliet, from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century
• plots a clear route through the vast array of debates, identifying chronological and thematic connections and explaining contexts
• investigates major issues and approaches such as deconstruction, psychoanalytical criticism, feminism and queer theory
• discusses film adaptations, including Baz Luhrmann's 1996 box-office hit William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet.

Authoritative and accessible, this invaluable Guide provides students, teachers and researchers with a panorama of the play's critical history in all its dynamic variety.