Following the ethos and ambition of the Shakespeare NOW series, and harnessing the energy, challenge and vigour of the 'minigraph' form, Shakespeare and I is a provocative appeal and manifesto for a more personal form of criticism. A number of the most exciting and authoritative writers on Shakespeare examine and scrutinise their deepest, most personal and intimate responses to Shakespeare's plays and poems, to ask themselves if and how Shakespeare has made them the person they are. Their responses include autobiographical histories, reflections on their relationship to their professional, institutional or familial roles and meditations on the person-making force of religious or political conviction. A blog at http: //shakespearenowseries.blogspot.com enables both contributors and readers to continue the debate about why Shakespeare keeps us reading and what that means for our lives today. The book aims to inspire readers to think and write about their ever-changing personal relationship with Shakespeare: about how the poems and plays - and writing about them - can reveal or transform our sense of ourselves.

An introductory guide to studying Shakespeare This book is a 'one-stop-shop' for the busy undergraduate studying Shakespeare. Offering detailed guidance to the plays most often taught on undergraduate courses, the volume targets the topics tutors choose for essay questions and is organised to help students find the information they need quickly. Each text discussion contains sections on sources, characters, performance, themes, language, and critical history, helping students identify the different ways of approaching a text. The book's unique play-based structure and character-centre approach allows students to easily navigate the material. The flexibility of the design allows students to either read cover-to-cover, target a specific play, or explore elements of a narrative unit such as imagery or characterisation. The reader will gain quickly a full grasp of the kind of dramatist William Shakespeare was - and is. Key Features An introduction which gives an up-to-date 'state-of-play' of the academic, theatrical and cultural efforts inspired by Shakespeare's texts A discussion of critical approaches to the playwright's texts Succinct guides to Shakespeare's most-studied plays Discussion questions

This book is a one-stop-shop for the busy undergraduate studying Shakespeare. Offering detailed guidance to the plays most often taught on undergraduate courses, the volume targets the topics tutors choose for essay questions and is organised to help students find the information they need quickly. Each text discussion contains sections on sources, characters, performance, themes, language, and critical history, helping students identify the different ways of approaching a text. The book's unique play-based structure and character-centre approach allows students to easily navigate the material. The flexibility of the design allows students to either read cover-to- cover, target a specific play, or explore elements of a narrative unit such as imagery or characterisation.The reader will gain quickly a full grasp of the kind of dramatist William Shakespeare was - and is.