The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Textual Studies

Description

The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Textual Studies is a wide-ranging, authoritative guide to research on Shakespeare and textual studies by an international team of leading scholars. It contains chapters on all the major areas of current research, notably the Shakespeare manuscripts; the printed text and paratext in Shakespeare's early playbooks and poetry books; Shakespeare's place in the early modern book trade; Shakespeare's early readers, users, and collectors; the constitution and evolution of the Shakespeare canon from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century; Shakespeare's editors from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century; and the modern editorial reproduction of Shakespeare. The Handbook also devotes separate chapters to new directions and developments in research in the field, specifically in the areas of digital editing and of authorship attribution methodologies. In addition, the Companion contains various sections that provide non-specialists with practical help: an A-Z of key terms and concepts, a guide to research methods and problems, a chronology of major publications and events, an introduction to resources for study of the field, and a substantial annotated bibliography. The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Textual Studies is a reference work aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars and libraries, a guide to beginning or developing research in the field, an essential companion for all those interested in Shakespeare and textual studies.

Lukas Erne is Professor of English at the University of Geneva. He is the author of Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist (2003; 2nd edition, 2013), Shakespeare and the Book Trade (2013), Shakespeare's Modern Collaborators (2008), and Beyond "The Spanish Tragedy": A Study of the Works of Thomas Kyd (2001). He has edited The First Quarto of Romeo and Juliet (2007) and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Norton Shakespeare, 3rd edition (2015). Among the collections of essays he has edited are Textual Performances: The Modern Reproduction of Shakespeare's Drama, with M.J. Kidnie ( 2004) and Medieval and Early Modern Authorship, with Guillemette Bolens (2011). In 2012, he gave the Lyell Lectures at the University of Oxford and was the Fowler Hamilton Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford.

An indispensable resource covering both established and emergent scholarship, this volume is also an immensely practical guide to the field. Commendably too, this handbook demonstrates that profound erudition, scholarly illumination, and pioneering research can be presented as an accessible pedagogical intervention. -- Dympna C. Callaghan, William L. Safire Professor in Modern Letters, Syracuse University, USA If you have ever wondered exactly why colleagues become so excited about Shakespeare textual studies, Lukas Erne's Research Handbook will give you the answer. He has assembled an immensely impressive array of textual scholars and all of them write in a way that is both profoundly scholarly and consistently accessible. More than yet another collection of chapters, this really is a reference guide, a how-to handbook that will make its readers as enthusiastic as its authors. -- Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame, USA As Lukas Erne notes, this is a perfect moment to reflect on Shakespearean textual studies. He has assembled a genuinely international cast of the very best textual scholars for a collection that is both timely and exemplary. If you seek a precise and engaging snapshot of the current state of play in the field, you're in the right place. -- Gordon McMullan, Professor of English and Director of the London Shakespeare Centre, King's College London, UK