Naseeb Shaheen

Last updated

Naseeb Azeez Shaheen ( June 21, 1931 - September 26, 2009) was an American scholar who specialized in Biblical allusions in the work of Shakespeare.

Contents

Born in Chicago, he graduated in 1962 from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon with a Bachelor of Arts. In 1965, he received a Master of Arts and, in 1969, a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles. Shaheen was a professor of English Literature at the University of Memphis. His course work included Shakespeare, English Renaissance Literature, and The Bible as Literature.

American University of Beirut private university in Lebanon

The American University of Beirut (AUB) is a private, non sectarian, and independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It is one of the most prestigious universities in the Middle East, securing the top spot in the Arab region in the 2018 QS World University Rankings.

Professor academic title at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries

Professor is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences, a teacher of the highest rank.

University of Memphis Public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, USA

The University of Memphis, colloquially known as U of M, is a public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 21,000 students.

Shaheen authored four books on the biblical allusions in Shakespeare's plays: tragedies (1987); histories (1989); comedies (1993); a selection of plays (Biblical References in Shakespeare's Plays, 1999). [1]

According to Dr. Naseeb Shaheen, Shakespeare, in writing his plays, "seldom borrows biblical references from his sources, even when those sources contain many references." Roy Battenhouse notes that the Shakespearean tragedy "frequently echoes Bible language or paradigm, even when the play's setting is pagan." Similarly, Peter Milward notes that despite their secular appearance, Shakespeare's plays "conceal an undercurrent of religious meaning which belongs to their deepest essence." Further, Milward maintains that although Shakespeare "may have felt obliged by the circumstances of the Elizabethan stage to avoid Biblical or other religious subjects for his plays," such obligation "did not prevent him from making full use of the Bible in dramatizing his secular sources and thus infusing into them a Biblical meaning." Milward continues that, in writing his plays, Shakespeare "shows the universal relevance of the Bible both to the reality of human life 'in this harsh world' and to its ideal in the heart of God." Steven Marx suggests "a thorough familiarity with the Scriptures" is a prerequisite to understanding the Biblical references in the plays, and that the plays' references to the Bible "illuminate fresh and surprising meanings in the biblical text." Marx further notes that "it is possible that Shakespeare sometimes regarded his own role of playwright and performer as godlike, his own book as potent and capacious as 'The Book'." It is important to note, as a recent study points out “The diversity of versions reflected in Shakespeare’s writing indicates that ‘Shakespeare’s Bible’ cannot be taken for granted as unitary, since it consists of a network of different translations”

Selected works

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Related Research Articles

Edmund Spenser 16th-century English poet

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse, and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.

<i>The Faerie Queene</i> English epic poem by Edmund Spenser

The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books I–III were first published in 1590, and then republished in 1596 together with books IV–VI. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it is one of the longest poems in the English language as well as the work in which Spenser invented the verse form known as the Spenserian stanza. On a literal level, the poem follows several knights as a means to examine different virtues, and though the text is primarily an allegorical work, it can be read on several levels of allegory, including as praise of Queen Elizabeth I. In Spenser's "Letter of the Authors", he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in Allegorical devices", and the aim of publishing The Faerie Queene was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".

Leir of Britain 12th century pseudo-historical king

Leir was a legendary king of the Britons whose story was recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical 12th-century History of the Kings of Britain. According to Geoffrey's genealogy of the British dynasty, Leir's reign would have occurred around the 8th century BC, around the time of the founding of Rome. The story was modified and retold by William Shakespeare in his Jacobean tragedy King Lear.

English Renaissance cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th century to the early 17th century

The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. As in most of the rest of northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later. The beginning of the English Renaissance is often taken, as a convenience, to be 1485, when the Battle of Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses and inaugurated the Tudor Dynasty. Renaissance style and ideas, however, were slow to penetrate England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance.

Stephen Booth is a professor emeritus of English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Marshall Scholar and studied at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He first attracted attention with his controversial 1969 essays On the Value of Hamlet and An Essay on Shakespeare's Sonnets, in which he reread the works in a manner considerably different from contemporary Anglo-American readings. Frank Kermode praised the former essay in the New York Review of Books in 1970 as being worth several full books of Shakespeare studies.

The Book of Gad the Seer is a presumed lost text, supposed to have been written by the Biblical prophet Gad, which is mentioned at 1 Chronicles 29:29. The passage reads: "Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer." These writings of Nathan and Gad may have been incorporated into 1 and 2 Samuel.

<i>Saint George and the Dragon</i> (book) book by Margaret Hodges

Saint George and the Dragon is a book written by Margaret Hodges and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Released by Little, Brown, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1985. The text is adapted from Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene.

Avraham Oz Israeli theatre director

Avraham Oz is an Israeli associate professor of Theatre and Hebrew and Comparative literature at the University of Haifa, a translator of plays, operas, and poetry into Hebrew, and a peace activist. He specializes in English theatre and drama, Shakespeare, political theatre, and Theatre theory.

Religious views of William Shakespeare

The religious views of William Shakespeare are the subject of an ongoing scholarly debate dating back more than 150 years. The general assumption about William Shakespeare's religious affiliation is that he was a conforming member of the established Anglican Church. However, many scholars have speculated about his personal religious beliefs, based on analysis of the historical record and of his published work, with claims that Shakespeare's family may have had Catholic sympathies and that he himself was a secret Catholic.

Gerald "Gary" Neil Knoppers was a professor in the Department of Theology at University of Notre Dame. He wrote books and articles regarding a range of Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern topics. He is particularly renowned for his work on 1 Chronicles, writing I Chronicles 1 - 9 and I Chronicles 10 - 29, which together comprise a very significant treatment of the work of the Chronicler. In May 2005 the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies/Societe canadienne des Etudes bibliques granted the R. B. Y. Scott Award to Knoppers for his two-volume Anchor Bible commentary on I Chronicles

William Ponsonby (publisher) London publisher

William Ponsonby was a prominent London publisher of the Elizabethan era. Active in the 1577–1603 period, Ponsonby published the works of Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, and other members of the Sidney circle; he has been called "the leading literary publisher of Elizabethan times."

The Dark Lady Players organization

The Dark Lady Players are a New York-based Shakespeare company who perform what they regard as the religious allegories in the Shakespearean plays. In 2007 they performed an allegorical production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Abingdon Theater in New York. In 2008 they performed As You Like It: The Big Flush, directed by Stephen Wisker, at the Midtown International Theatre Festival with an entirely female cast interspersing Shakespeare's As You Like It with "cultural and literary references" believed to be included by Amelia Bassano Lanier. On December 15, 2009 they produced a festival at Manhattan Theater Source of short plays written about Lanier by nine New York City playwrights. In September 2011 they presented "nine scenes from Shakespeare, divided into three thematic groups and casts" in the West-Park Presbyterian Church in Upper West Side.

Father Peter Milward, SJ was a Jesuit priest and literary scholar. He was emeritus professor of English Literature at Sophia University in Tokyo and a leading figure in scholarship on English Renaissance literature. He was chair of the Renaissance Institute at Sophia University from its inception in 1974 until it was closed down in 2014 and director of the Renaissance Centre from its start in 1984 until it was closed down in 2002. He primarily published on the works of William Shakespeare and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Orgoglio is a literary character in Edmund Spenser's famous epic The Faerie Queene. He appears in the seventh canto of Book One as a beast and attacks the main character, Redcrosse, who symbolizes the ultimate Christian knight, during a moment of weakness. "Orgoglio" means "pride" in Italian. In chapter IX of Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott, the manor of Bradwardyne is compared to the castle of Orgoglio.

Mohammad Shaheen Jordanian professor of English literature

Mohammad Shaheen has been a professor of English literature at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan since 1985. Shaheen holds a PhD degree in English literature from Cambridge University. He is the author of many books, including E.M. Forster and the Politics of Imperialism.

James H. Morey is an American academic. He is a Professor of English at Emory University teaching courses in Old and Middle English, including Chaucer

Fairy Queen figure from Irish and British folklore

The Fairy Queen or Queen of the Fairies is a figure from Irish and British folklore, believed to rule the fairies. Based on Shakespeare's influence, in English-speaking cultures she is often named Titania or Mab.

Janet Ann Adelman was a Shakespearean scholar, a literary critic, and professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ewan Fernie British scholar and writer

Ewan Fernie is a British scholar and writer. He is Professor, Fellow and Chair of Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. He is also Director of the pioneering 'Everything to Everybody' Project, a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council.

References

Book Reviews by Shaheen

Reviews of Shaheen's Books

Further reading