Textual Performances: The Modern Reproduction of Shakespeare's Drama

Description

This important collection brings together leading scholars to examine crucial questions regarding the theory and practice of editing Shakespeare's plays. In particular the essays look at how best to engage editorially with evidence provided by historical research into the playhouse, author's study, and printing house. How are editors of playscripts to mediate history, in its many forms, for modern users? Considering our knowledge of the past is partial (in the senses both of incomplete and ideological), where are we to draw the line between legitimate editorial assistance and unwarranted interference? In what innovative ways might current controversies surrounding the mediation of Shakespeare's drama shape future editorial practice? Focusing on the key points of debate and controversy of the present moment, this collection makes a vital contribution to a better understanding of how editorial practice (on the page and in cyberspace) might develop in the twenty-first century.

Lukas Erne teaches English literature at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He is the author of Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist (Cambridge, 2003) and Beyond The Spanish Tragedy: A study of the works of Thomas Kyd (2001). Margaret Jane Kidnie is Associate Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. She is the editor of Ben Jonson: The Devil is an Ass and Other Plays (2000), and Philip Stubbes, The Anatomie of Abuses (2002).

'Written by scholars with an admirable sense of theatrical values, this wide-ranging and accessibly presented volume represents a cutting-edge contribution to the editorial debate about Shakespeare.' Stanley Wells '... the diversity of its approaches and methodologies makes it a stimulating and necessary guide which continuously draws the reader's attention to the ambivalences and inconsistencies of Shakespeare's text.' Modern Literary Review