The book is a semiotic study of Jacobean drama, examining both canonical texts by Thomas Middleton, John Webster and less known dramas such as Anonymous Lust's Dominion, Markham and Sampson's Herod and Antipater or Thierry and Theodoret by Beaumont and Fletcher. Combining Bakhtinian concepts with Jurij Lotman's theory of semiosphere, the author offers new readings of eleven tragedies. The book outlines the semiotic universe of Jacobean drama, examining both canonical tragedies by Thomas Middleton, John Webster and less known dramas such as Anonymous Lust's Dominion, Markham and Sampson's Herod and Antipater or Thierry and Theodoret by Beaumont and Fletcher. Contents: Jacobean tragedy - Semiotics and drama - Thomas Middeton - John Webster - John Marston - Markham and Sampson - Beaumont and Fletcher - Lust's Dominion - Jurij Lotman - Mikhail Bakhtin. Justyna Laura Galant is assistant professor in the Department of English Studies at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. She publishes on Renaissance drama, utopia and dystopia in literature, on film and the new media. This is an innovative study, well argumented and convincing in its application of semiotic methodology. Justyna Galant is well aware of the vast critical heritage of Jacobean revenge plays, and yet she manages to present new readings that are impressive both in the quality of the analytical tools applied and in the depth of her insights and synthesis. Even when discussing plays that have relatively frequently been the object of critical studies, Galant manages to shed fresh light on the ways in which meanings are created.
(Jerzy Limon, University of Gdansk)
Justyna Galant's book is a thoughtful literary analysis of eleven Jacobean tragedies whose high level of hermeneutic detail allows possible dramaturgical applications, i.e. can be used as a reading device in structuring the meaning of texts translated into theatrical performances. The originality of this study lies in its focused analysis of the world-creating operations of alternative realities by means of verbal and dramatic procedures that serve the intentions of their authors. (José Eduardo Reis, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro)
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