Shakespeare and the City

Bibliographic Data

ID12880531
AuthorsAdam Hansen (0000-0002-4358-9842, Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume4
Issue3
Pages820-850
Publication date2007-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLiterature Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1741-4113.2007.00452.x
OpenAlexW2025675715
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited49

This article discusses how critics have conceived the relationship between Shakespeare and the city. Discussion necessarily focuses on early modern London, the city where Shakespeare's plays were first produced and received. The plays represent and are conditioned by the institutions and features of this particular city, such as the Court, the suburbs, the market, citizenship and migration. What will become clear, though, is that critics have shown how Shakespeare's plays constructed understandings of these institutions and features. This article also suggests that early modern London is not the only city to which Shakespeare's works relate. Other cities, past and present, actual and imagined, also affect the plays’ production, conception and reception, and their appropriation in media such as film. Surveying and evaluating recent scholarship, this article details some of the socio‐historical contexts of ‘Shakespeare's’ cities, and raises questions for further study. Where appropriate, discussion refers to specific plays, integrating these references into broader models of interpretation

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Appropriation · Art · Citizenship · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

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