The new wave of cultural materialists in Britain and new historicists in the United States here join forces to depose the sacred icon of the "eternal bard" and argue for a Shakespeare who meditates and exploits political, cultural and ideological forces. Ten years on, this second edition presents additional essays by Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield.
Part 1 Recovering history: introduction - Shakespeare, cultural materialism and the new historicism, Jonathan Dollimore; invisible bullets - renaissance authority and its subversion, "Henry IV" and "Henry V", Stephen Greenblatt; "This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine" - "The Tempest" and the discourse of colonialism, Paul Brown; transgression and surveillance in "Measure for Measure", Jonathan Dollimore; the patriarchal bard - feminist criticism and Shakespeare - "King Lear" and "Measure for Measure", Kathleen McLuskie; strategies of state and political plays - "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Henry IV", "Henry V", "Henry VIII", Leonard Tennenhouse. Part 2 Reproductions, interventions: introduction - reproductions, interventions, Alan Sinfield; give an account of Shakespeare and education, showing why you think they are effective and what you have appreciated about them. support your comments with precise references, Alan Sinfield; Royal Shakespeare - theatre and the making of ideology, Alan Sinfield; radical potentiality and institutional closure - Shakespeare in film and television, Graham Holderness; how Brecht read Shakespeare, Margot Heinemann; afterword, Raymond Williams.
