CRITICISM

Braunmuller, A. R., ed. Introduction to Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, pp. 1-93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Presents an in-depth critical introduction to Macbeth, emphasizing the play's historical sources, major themes, language, and performance history.

Carroll, William C., ed. Macbeth: Texts and Contexts. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999, 394 p.

Locates Macbeth within its Jacobean cultural context, linking the tragedy thematically to a number of contemporary discourses on such issues as Scottish history, sovereignty, rebellion, and witchcraft.

Cartwright, Kent. “Scepticism and Theatre in Macbeth.” Shakespeare Survey 55 (2002): 219-36.

Argues that Macbeth represents a confluence of the vividly intense, almost believable, theatrical experience with the emerging proclivity for skepticism which shaped the cultural attitudes of Jacobean playgoers.

Goldberg, Jonathan. “Speculations: Macbeth and Source.” In Shakespeare's Hand, pp. 152-75. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

Maintains that any study of the sources used in the writing of Macbeth must acknowledge their differing social and political bases.

Gooder, Jean. “‘Fixt Fate’ and ‘Free Will’ in Phèdre and Macbeth.” Cambridge Quarterly 28, no. 3 (1999): 214-31.

Suggests that Jean Racine's Phèdre and Shakespeare's Macbeth anticipate modern fatalism.

Hays, Michael L. “Macbeth: Loyal Stewards and Royal Succession.” In Shakespearean Tragedy as Chivalric Romance: Rethinking Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear, pp. 98-129. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003.

Asserts that Macbeth features some conventions of the chivalric romance tradition, particularly emphasizing the romantic “return-from-exile” motif inherent in Malcolm's triumph over Macbeth.

Hochberg, Shifra. “Genre and Self-Reflexive Enterprise in Macbeth: Writing the Text of Tragedy.” LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 9, no. 1 (1998): 1-13.

Maintains that Shakespeare demonstrated the limitations of the tragic mode in Macbeth.

Holderness, Graham. “‘To be observed’: Cue One Macbeth.” In Re-Visions of Shakespeare: Essays in Honor of Robert Ornstein, edited by Evelyn Gajowski, pp. 165-86. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004.

Attempts to reconstruct a 1611 performance of Macbeth based on a detailed eye-witness account from a spectator named Simon Forman. The critic speculates that the performance Forman witnessed might have been based on a lost quarto version of the play that predates the 1623 Folio edition.

Kernan, Alvin. “The Politics of Madness and Demonism: Macbeth, Hampton Court, August 7, 1606.” In Shakespeare, the King's Playwright: Theater in the Stuart Court, 1603-1613, pp. 71-88. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995.

Suggests that a royal performance of Macbeth was staged in 1606 for James I and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark. The critic maintains that the production would have been “a consummate piece of patronage art” which celebrated James's sovereignty and underscored his opposition to the politically and culturally destabilizing influence of witchcraft.

Kinney, Arthur F. Lies Like Truth: Shakespeare, Macbeth, and the Cultural Moment, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001, 341 p.

Provides a neuroscientific assessment of the sensory response to live drama, demonstrating how brain synapses process theatrical words and images from a play in performance. The critic applies this cognitive principle to “the cultural moment” when Macbeth was likely first performed in 1606, arguing that each auditor's response did not conform to any unified ideological criteria but rather produced infinite unpredictable and indeterminate meanings.

Kliman, Bernice. “Another Ninagawa Macbeth.” Shakespeare Newsletter 52, no. 4 (winter 2002/2003): 93, 106.

Presents a favorable review of Yukio Ninagawa's production of Macbeth.

Levin, Joanna. “Lady Macbeth and the Daemonologie of Hysteria.” ELH 69, no. 1 (2002): 21-55.

Discusses Shakespeare's characterization of Lady Macbeth in terms of contemporary thought regarding motherhood, witchcraft, and hysteria.

Rosslyn, Felicity. “Villainy, Virtue and Projection.” Cambridge Quarterly 30, no. 1 (2001): 1-17.

Examines the popularity of villainous characters in Macbeth and several other Jacobean plays.

Weber, Bruce. “Shakespeare as if Played in Vietnam with Style.” New York Times (6 December 2002): E3.

Calls Yukio Ninagawa's production of Macbeth “gaudily stylish but undeniably exciting.”

Worster, David. “Performance Options and Pedagogy: Macbeth.” Shakespeare Quarterly 53, no. 3 (fall 2002): 362-78.

Recommends a dynamic strategy for teaching Macbeth.