The Renaissance was a time of unprecedented change in England. Massive intellectual and cultural developments coincided with considerable social instability and political tensions that would lead to the Civil War. While England was in a process of rethinking its structures and values, and subjecting traditional orthodoxy to fresh and incisive scrutiny, the drama of the period was intimately engaged in these processes. This book focuses on the key debates and events of the Renaissance, such as identity, sexuality, social order, religion, state power and colonialism, and provides an introduction to the work of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, Dekker, Webster, Middleton and Ford.
Brief, manageable and affordable, the books in the Contexts series fill the gap in students' knowledge of the historical facts, literary associations and wider cultural climate of the main literary periods. As well as offering a background in relevant social history, these texts include selected extracts from original documents to give a full flavour of the period in question.
Brief, manageable and affordable, the books in the Contexts series fill the gap in students' knowledge of the historical facts, literary associations and wider cultural climate of the main literary periods. As well as offering a background in relevant social history, these texts include selected extracts from original documents to give a full flavour of the period in question.







