Shakespeare's Shipwrecks: The Sea and Nautical Hazards in the Plays

In Shakespeare's Shipwrecks: The Sea and Nautical Hazards in the Plays Andreas Ziegler explores the use of shipwrecks in Shakespeare's works. Although shipwrecks are among the plot elements that Shakespeare employed most frequently, this has found remarkably little representation in the vast amounts of literature about Shakespeare. No study before has attempted to relate the frequent use of shipwreck in Shakespeare's plays to the realities of navigation and seafaring.

The author, a medical doctor with a passion for both Shakespeare and navigation, provides his interpretation of the function and representation of shipwrecks in the plays. He finds that shipwrecks are not only a convenient dramatic device but also have rich metaphorical implications. After all, humans leave their own ancestral element, terra firma, when they go out to the sea.

The study also demonstrates that stories about shipwreck or about adventure on the high seas are as old as storytelling itself, which may be a reason that they resonate and fascinate until today -- and that Shakespeare employed them with such relish.

This is a book written by a Shakespeare friend for other Shakespeare friends, who like to delve into the text of the plays.

With a foreword by Zeno Ackermann.