Stuart Sillars. Shakespeare and the visual imagination

Abstract

The review is devoted to S. Sillars’ book Shakespeare and the Visual Imagination. Sillars introduces the concept of ‘visual imagination’ and examines it through the works of Shakespeare. Other key notions for the study include copia and ethopoeia. Sillars uses them to combine analyses of different Shakespearean plays. In his examination of the playwright’s legacy Sillars employs a variety of methods, which counts as a merit rather than a flaw of this work. However, his arguments justifying a special place for As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale among Shakespeare’s oeuvre are not convincing. In his study Sillars turns to subjects well known to researchers, but also references less common works for comparison (Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ).