Shakespeare / Space - Contemporary Readings in Spatiality, Culture and Drama

Shakespeare / Space explores new approaches to the enactment of ‘space’ in and through Shakespeare’s plays, as well as to the cognitive, material and virtual spaces in which they are enacted. With contributions from 14 leading experts in their fields, the collection forges innovative connections between spatial studies and cultural geography, cognitive studies, phenomenology and the history of the emotions, gender and race studies, rhetoric and language, translation studies, memory studies, theatre history and performance studies. Each chapter offers methodological reflections on intersections such as space/cognition, space/emotion, space/geopoetics, space/embodiment, space/language, space/virtual, whose critical purchase is demonstrated in close-readings of one or several plays. The essays assembled here testify to the importance of space for our understanding of Shakespeare’s creative and theatrical practice, and at the same time enlarge our understanding of space as a critical concept in the humanities. It will prove useful to students, scholars, teachers and theatre practitioners of Shakespeare and early modern studies.