This Contentious Storm: An Ecocritical and Performance History of King Lear

Introduction: the case for King Lear -- Ecocriticism. Meteorological reading -- "What is the cause of thunder?": the storm's three ambiguities -- Cataclysmic shame: three views of Lear's mortal body in the storm -- Performance history. Ecocritical big history -- The spectacular Jacobean theatre -- Storms of fortune: industrial technology and Nahum Tate, c.1680-c.1900 -- Lear's head: the rise of the psychological metaphor, 1908-1955 -- Towards the flood, 1962-2016 -- Epilogue: the art of necessity