The English Teacher's Guide to the Hamilton Musical: Symbols, Allegory, Metafiction, and Clever Language - Paperback

by Valerie Estelle Frankel (Author)

The high school or college English class offers a long list of technical terms: Symbolism, Irony, Metafiction, Allegory, Metaphor... With such a barrage, it can be tough to sort them all out. Yet here's the list, from Absurdity to Zeugma, all defined through the clever wordplay of Hamilton. In fact, musicals use all the rhythm and rhyme patterns of history's top poets, and the literary skill of crafting characters and straddling genre. Further, the rap battles reveal a list of logical fallacies and top argumentation strategies that could empower lawyers or speech writers at the level of this famed Founding Father. Going deeper, the book lists the themes, motifs, allusions, and so on of the show, revealing sneaky foreshadowing and subtle symbols. For die-hard fans of the show, or those mastering rhetorical terms, logic, and the power of words, it's a delightful geek guide.

Author Biography

Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of many books on pop culture, including Doctor Who - The What, Where, and How, Sherlock: Every Canon Reference You May Have Missed in BBC's Series 1-3, History, Homages and the Highlands: An Outlander Guide, and How Game of Thrones Will End. Many of her books focus on women's roles in fiction, from her heroine's journey guides From Girl to Goddess and Buffy and the Heroine's Journey to books like Superheroines and the Epic Journey and The Many Faces of Katniss Everdeen. Once a lecturer at San Jose State University, she's a frequent speaker at conferences. Come explore her research at www.vefrankel.com.