Writing & Society Research Seminar Series: Chris

Interdisciplinary studies of Shakespeare have become commonplace in the last forty years, after a long period in which those who ventured outside the text were regarded as dilettante dabblers. Serious study of geographical significances that went beyond searching for Juliet's mythical balcony in Verona or the doubtful ethnicity of Othello were slow in becoming recognised. Since the early 1980s some deeper meanings have been found to be embedded in the plays. Some fine scholars, including Stephen Greenblatt, Leah Marcus, and Richard Helgerson have ventured into this exploration; and, more recently, John Gillies and Virginia Mason Vaughan have contributed notably.