Celtic Shakespeare: The Bard and the Borderers

Drawing together some of the leading academics in the field of Shakespeare studies, this volume examines the commonalities and differences in addressing a notionally 'Celtic' Shakespeare. Celtic contexts have been established for many of Shakespeare's plays, and there has been interest too in the ways in which Irish, Scottish and Welsh critics, editors and translators have reimagined Shakespeare, claiming, connecting with and correcting him. This collection fills a major gap in literary criticism by bringing together the best scholarship on the individual nations of Ireland, Scotland and Wales in a way that emphasizes cultural crossovers and crucibles of conflict. The volume is divided into three chronologically ordered sections: Tudor Reflections, Stuart Revisions and Celtic Afterlives. This division of essays directs attention to Shakespeare's transformed treatment of national identity in plays written respectively in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, but also takes account of later regional receptions and the cultural impact of the playwright's dramatic works. The first two sections contain fresh readings of a number of the individual plays, and pay particular attention to the ways in which Shakespeare attends to contemporary understandings of national identity in the light of recent history. Juxtaposing this material with subsequent critical receptions of Shakespeare's works, from Milton to Shaw, this volume addresses a significant critical lacuna in Shakespearean criticism. Rather than reading these plays from a solitary national perspective, the essays in this volume cohere in a wide-ranging treatment of Shakespeare's direct and oblique references to the archipelago, and the problematic issue of national identity.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Prologue: Díonbrollach: how Celtic was Shakespeare?, John Kerrigan; Introduction: Celtic connections and archipelagic angles, Willy Maley and Rory Loughnane; Part 1 Tudor Reflections: A scum of Britons? Richard III and the Celtic reconquest, Philip Schwyzer; The quality of mercenaries: contextualizing Shakespeare’s Scots in 1Henry IV and Henry V, Vimala C. Pasupathi; War the Boar and Spenserian politics in Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, Thomas Herron; `The howling of Irish wolves’: As You Like It and the Celtic Essex circle, Chris Butler; Shakespeare’s Elizabethan England/Jacobean Britain, Christopher Ivic. Part 2 Stuart Revisions: Othello and the Irish Question, Willy Maley; `Why should I play the Roman fool, and die / On mine own sword?’: the Senecan tradition in Macbeth, Andrew J. Power; `To th’ crack of doom’: sovereign imagination as anamorphosis in Shakespeare’s `show of kings’, Margaret Downs-Gamble; Warriors and ruins: Cymbeline, heroism and the union of crowns, Stewart Mottram; `I myself would for Caernarfonshire’: the Old Lady in King Henry VIII, Rory Loughnane. Part 3 Celtic Afterlives: The nation’s poet? Milton’s Shakespeare and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Nicholas McDowell; Shakespeare and transnational heritage in Dowden and Yeats, Rob Doggett; Cymbeline and Cymbeline Refinished: G.B. Shaw and the unresolved empire, Robin E. Bates; Beyond MacMorris: Shakespeare, Ireland and critical contexts, Stephen O’Neill; Epilogue: Hwyl and farewell, Richard Wilson; Works cited; Index.

About the Author :
Willy Maley is Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Rory Loughnane is Associate Editor, New Oxford Shakespeare, IUPUI, USA. John Kerrigan, Willy Maley, Rory Loughnane, Philip Schwyzer, Vimala C. Pasupathi, Thomas Herron, Chris Butler, Christopher Ivic, Andrew J. Power, Margaret Downs-Gamble, Stewart Mottram, Nicholas McDowell, Rob Doggett, Robin E. Bates, Stephen O'Neill, Richard Wilson.

Review :
'... a comprehensive, thought-provoking collection and a significant statement in the field of Shakespeare studies and archipelagic studies more widely.' Irish Studies Review 'It is a sign of how valuable and thought-provoking this collection is that many of the essay possess wider implications for early modern drama that should also be explored.' Scottish Literary Review '… a comprehensive, thought-provoking collection and a significant statement in the field of Shakespeare studies and archipelagic studies more widely.' Irish Studies Review 'It is a sign of how valuable and thought-provoking this collection is that many of the essay possess wider implications for early modern drama that should also be explored.' Scottish Literary Review