The Shakespeare Myth

"Q. Is 'the Shakespeare connection' (a) a family tree, (b) a drug racket, (c) a railway journey? A. It is all three. From the Carling Black Label television advertisement to the design of the £20 note, from Tony Hancock and Edna Everage to the Stratford Memorial Theatre, from O level exam question to Zeffirelli on the big screen, Shakespeare has permeated English life like no one before or since. The plays and their legendary author function and flourish in more varied and diverse forms than are usually reckoned. Through post-structuralist linguistics, historiographical research, psychoanalytic theories and feminist sexual politics, radical criticism exposes the existence of a culturally produced and historically-determined 'Shakespeare myth'. This anthology of specifically-commissioned essays and interviews directly addresses that myth, as it works through ideology, popular culture, sexual politics, and the institutions of theatre, education and broadcasting. It demonstrates how the 'Shakespeare myth' functions in contemporary culture as an ideological framework for containing consensus and for sustaining delusions of unity, integration and harmony in the cultural superstructures…

Издательство

Manchester University Press

Год

1988

Страниц

248

Язык

английский

ISBN

9780719014888