Post-Textual Shakespeare

摘要: No tongue, all eyes! Be silent. ( The Tempest , 4.1.59) In 2007, a curious billboard appeared in London advertising the move from Waterloo to St Pancras stations for hub of Eurorail train Paris. Above logo ‘London is changing’ was featured image skeleton kneeling on stage, holding his bony hand fully fleshed head man who looked back at skeleton's skull with astonishment. 2004 and 2005, poster campaign Swiss cities advertised Espace 2 channel Radio Suisse Romande two teens kissing subway filled inattentive passengers, accompanied by simple, one-word caption, ‘Shakespeare.’ These advertisements provoke deceptively simple question: this Shakespeare? what sense To ask question ‘is Shakespeare?’ ponder nature boundaries that extend around designation ‘Shakespearian’, laden though cultural power value. Like lines map, those may have illusion permanence given moment, but reality they are always flux, constantly being renegotiated response variety forces. Here I will be discussing particular kind limit case poses challenge one founding principles Shakespeare studies. My claim, nutshell, both popular culture avant-garde performance transgressed redrawn boundary can constitute ‘Shakespeare’ ever-greater insistence last twenty years, done so newly powerful dominant late twentieth early twenty-first century. Though eventually turn noteworthy recent performances Shakespeare, begin examples because stands intersection aesthetics, amplifying (and thus making visible) ideological representational strategies it borrows elsewhere. aims ads quite different, reveal traces processes work more generally. hope suggest how, under pressure mass mediatization, contemporary undergoing something paradigm shift raises foundational questions about how we, as Shakespearian professionals, conceptualize ‘essential’ or ‘authentic’ situate