Reading the River in Shakespeare's Britain - by Bill Angus & Lisa Hopkins (Paperback)

About the Book

Explores how perceptions of rivers shaped identity and culture in Shakespeare's Britain

Book Synopsis

In Shakespeare's Britain rivers were not only a crucial form of travel and important natural resources which sustained communities and provided employment but were also sites to which myths and memories accrued and which could be used to figure religious ideas of cleansing and the waters of life. Pageants were performed on them, legends grew up about their names and led to plays and poems being written about personified river gods and goddesses, and stories were told of historic battles which had been fought on their banks. These essays explore the cultural and literary geography of rivers in the early modern period and the ways in which they shaped the lives and identities of those who lived near them. By charting changes (both manmade and natural) to the way in which rivers ebb and flow the book also reminds us of the urgency of the climate crisis.

Review Quotes

This is a breakthrough gathering of interdisciplinary essays rediscovering the dynamic turbulence between rivers physically altered by natural and human pressures and the period's political, industrial and demographic changes. Reading the River in Shakespeare's Britain is an inspiring model of how to shift the environment from the backdrop of human-centred affairs to the compelling forefront of revisionist cultural geography and eco-history.--Randall Martin, University of New Brunswick