"Shakespeare Studies is an international volume published every year in hardcover, containing more than three hundred pages of essays and studies by critics and cultural historians from both hemispheres, as well as substantial reviews of the many significant books and essays dealing with the cultural history of early modern England and the place of Shakespeare's productions in it." "The contents of Volume XXIV embody some new departures from the previous issues by featuring, for example, a Forum in which seven authorities on the subject, W. Speed Hill, David Scott Kastan, Stephen Orgel, John Pitcher, Josephine A. Roberts, Paul Werstine, and Susan Zimmerman, discuss "Editing Early Modern Texts." Further in keeping with new departures, there are also review articles by Keir Elam on semiotics and Timothy Hampton on studies in early modern concepts of geography and the colonialism that stemmed from it. Among other essays are those by Linda Charnes on the discursive limits of ideology critique and Judith Rosenheim in allegorical commentary in The Merchant of Venice." "This volume also includes lengthy reviews of books written by an international selection of scholars. Books reviewed deal with the history of performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company, domestic crime in Elizabethan England, theatres at Cambridge University, witch-hunting in early modern England, female impersonation on Shakespeare's stage, and problems in psychoanalysis." "A board of scholars and critics maintain the quality of each annual volume so that Shakespeare Studies can serve as a useful guide for all students of Shakespeare - for directors, teachers, and actors as well as specialists in college and university study. The reader interested in more than a surface acquaintance with the plays and poems of Shakespeare will find in each volume widely ranging discussions of cultural history. These will include approaches to early modern England concerned with the relevance of philosophy, colonialism, and social unrest as these matters apply to the understanding of Shakespeare's milieu."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved