Julius Caesar's Self-Created Image and Its Dramatic Afterlife

The book explores how Julius Caesar's self-representation in his commentaries, constituent themes, and characterization have been appropriated or contested across the English dramatic canon from the late 1500s to the end of the 19th century. It focuses on major dramatic texts with rich performance history, such as Shakespeares Julius Caesar, Handels opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto, and Bernard Shaws Caesar and Cleopatra, as well as lesser-known early modern plays.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The book delves into the profound exploration of the extent to which various aspects of Julius Caesar's self-representation in his commentaries, constituent themes, and characterization have been appropriated or contested across the English dramatic canon from the late 1500s until the end of the 19th century. In his own words, Caesar constructs his image as a supreme commander, characterized by exceptional celerity and mercifulness. He is also defined by the heightened sense of self-dramatization achieved through the self-referential use of the third person, thus emerging as a quasi-divine hero inhabiting a literary-historical reality. These Caesarean qualities are channeled through Lucan's epic Bellum Civile and ancient historiography, manifesting as ambivalent hubris, political role-playing, self-institutionalization, and an exceptional relationship with temporality. By focusing on major dramatic texts with rich performance histories, such as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Handel's opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto, and Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, as well as a number of lesser-known early modern plays, the book encompasses diverse levels of dramas' active engagement with the process of reception of Caesar's iconic and controversial personality.

Weight: 392g
Dimension: 156 x 233 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350117303