Introduction

This volume’s title, The Shakespearean World, may suggest a territory to be identified, described, and mapped as though it were a discrete and knowable entity. The title may also provoke a number of questions meant to qualify the singular nature of any such phenomenon. Do we mean to depict a world circumscribed and dominated by Shakespeare, one that has been made in his image? Or do we envision a Shakespeare that has been remade by the world? Finally, is this world truly singular, or does Shakespeare entail some kind of plurality? We knew when we proposed this collection that such questions would make charting the Shakespearean world tremendously complex. Indeed, the Shakespeare we define for this book has acquired an array of meanings over the past four centuries; and those meanings accompany him throughout the world and in a number of media. “Shakespeare” signifies the historical person who lived between 1564 and 1616, as well as the plays and verse attributed to him. It also signifies the attitudes towards both author and works determined by their reception; and reception varies not only from culture to culture, but even within cultures. “Shakespeare” the classic can be politically charged to speak many languages with many voices.