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Of Human Kindness
What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy
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Of Human Kindness
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book is ideal for students, educators, and readers interested in Shakespeare, literary analysis, and the role of literature in fostering empathy and social awareness.
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See moreAn award-winning scholar and teacher explores how Shakespeare’s greatest characters were built on a learned sense of empathy
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
While exploring Shakespeare’s plays with her students, Paula Marantz Cohen discovered that teaching and discussing his plays unlocked a surprising sense of compassion in the classroom. In this short and illuminating book, she shows how Shakespeare’s genius lay with his ability to arouse empathy, even when his characters exist in alien contexts and behave in reprehensible ways.
Cohen takes her readers through a selection of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice, to demonstrate the ways in which Shakespeare thought deeply and clearly about how we treat “the other.” Cohen argues that only through close reading of Shakespeare can we fully appreciate his empathetic response to race, class, gender, and age. Wise, eloquent, and thoughtful, this book is a forceful argument for literature’s power to champion what is best in us.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Wall Street Journal praised it as "straightforward, persuasive and eminently sympathetic," highlighting the thrill of close reading. The Tablet called it "a study of Shakespeare's genius for arousing empathy—even in unexpected contexts." Emma Smith in the Times Literary Supplement described it as "warm and committed," rooted in classroom experience and engaging for young university students. Yale's David Blight said it is "a dazzling book, tight in its prose, expansive in wisdom," while Carmen Khan noted it captures "a deep truth about Shakespeare's work that has not been explored before"—his insight into the human heart revealing our "better angels."
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780300256413
Publisher: Yale University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 27 April 2021
Country: United States
Imprint: Yale University Press
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 17.0mm
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 216.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 176
About the Author
Paula Marantz Cohen is the Dean of the Pennoni Honors College and Distinguished Professor of English at Drexel University, as well as host of the television interview show The Civil Discourse.
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