Status Updates From Shakespeare in Our Time: A ...

The themes of death and longevity through the arts (or media as some scholars have it) are fitting for a celebration of Shakespeare’s death; Winter’s Tale has a special significance. Yet, in the six years since Our Time was published, the earnest pleas to end racial violence and civil strife have fallen on deaf ears, almost as if we westerners have learned nothing from any of these astute plays.

Starting out with hot-button topics such as gender and sexuality in Shakespeare plays, the contributors settle down to the more seductive scholarly work of teaching theatrical drama and editing textual variants. Even more impressive than each short-form essay relating coherent interpretations, shorter pieces show evidence of authors responding to each other, at least within their own section. Revolutionary academics!