This collection of new essays is the first to explore the rich afterlife of one of Shakespeare's most recognizable characters. With contributions from an international group of established and emerging scholars, The Afterlife of Ophelia moves beyond the confines of existing scholarship and forges new lines of inquiry beyond Shakespeare studies.

This collection of new essays is the first to explore the rich afterlife of one of Shakespeare's most recognizable characters. With contributions from an international group of established and emerging scholars, The Afterlife of Ophelia moves beyond the confines of existing scholarship and forges new lines of inquiry beyond Shakespeare studies.

The study emphasizes the role of the arts and humanities in the re-plotting of gender and also links cultural production to political circumstances, specifically to the end of the Franco dictatorship and the transitional to a new democracy in Spain. The inclusion of both the visual art of Marina Núnez and art photographs as well as literary authors and dramatists offers views of overarching motifs in the cultural production of Spain. The book includes an historical component, with an analysis of works by major nineteenth and early twentieth-century Spanish poets, including Espronceda, Bécquer, Villaspesas, Lorca, and the pioneer female author Blanca de los Rios. The list of writers from the 1970s forward includes both highly recognized figures, Clara Janés, María Victoria Atencia, Eduardo Quiles and an extensive group of important writers less recognized beyond among critics.

Shakespearean performances regularly take place at both historic sites and locations with complex resonances, such as Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and the royal castle of Hamlet – Elsinore – in Denmark. The present issue of the Shakespeare International Yearbook examines the impact of specificities such as festivals and performance sites on our understanding of Shakespeare and globalization. Contributions survey the present state of Shakespeare studies and address issues that are fundamental to our interpretive encounter with Shakespeare's work and his time, across the whole spectrum of his literary output.

Shakespeare’s Suicides: Dead Bodies That Matter is the first study in Shakespeare criticism to examine the entirety of Shakespeare’s dramatic suicides. It addresses all plays featuring suicides and near-suicides in chronological order from Titus Andronicus to Antony and Cleopatra, thus establishing that suicide becomes increasingly pronounced as a vital means of dramatic characterisation. In particular, the book approaches suicide as a gendered phenomenon. By taking into account parameters such as onstage versus offstage deaths, suicide speeches or the explicit denial of final words, as well as settings and weapons, the study scrutinises the ways in which Shakespeare appropriates the convention of suicide and subverts traditional notions of masculine versus feminine deaths. It shows to what extent a gendered approach towards suicide opens up a more nuanced understanding of the correlation between gender and Shakespeare’s genres and how, eventually, through their dramatisation of suicide the tragedies query normative gender discourse.

Winner of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women’s Collaborative Book Prize 2017 Rethinking Feminism in Early Modern Studies is a volume of essays by leading scholars in the field of early modern studies on the history, present state, and future possibilities of feminist criticism and theory. It responds to current anxieties that feminist criticism is in a state of decline by attending to debates and differences that have emerged in light of ongoing scholarly discussions of race, affect, sexuality, and transnationalism-work that compels us continually to reassess our definitions of ’women’ and gender. Rethinking Feminism demonstrates how studies of early modern literature, history, and culture can contribute to a reimagination of feminist aims, methods, and objects of study at this historical juncture. While the scholars contributing to Rethinking Feminism have very different interests and methods, they are united in their conviction that early modern studies must be in dialogue with, and indeed contribute to, larger theoretical and political debates about gender, race, and sexuality, and to the relationship between these areas. To this end, the essays not only analyze literary texts and cultural practices to shed light on early modern ideology and politics, but also address metacritical questions of methodology and theory. Taken together, they show how a consciousness of the complexity of the past allows us to rethink the genealogies and historical stakes of current scholarly norms and debates.

The series statement "Oxford handbooks to Shakespeare" taken from dust jacket.