Spectres of Shakespeare. Appropriations of Shakespeare In the Early English Gothic

by Jacek Mydla

This study deals, besides textual evidence, with the generic (thus also structural and thematic) similarities between Shakespeare and works that both now make up the Gothic canon and those, including the underestimated dramatic variety, that have recently been restored to it. In discussing the inevitable transformations to which the Shakespeare oeuvre was subjected, the project is concerned with its role in the solidification of the British national identity, a process in which the literary Gothic also had a role to play. Many critics have observed that Shakespeare haunts Gothic works. There is a need to look beyond this scholarly commonplace summed up in the metaphor of surface-scratching, which will only enable us to assess the degree of interpenetration between Shakespeare and the Gothic, now two classics of English literary history.

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009