Overview

Shakespeare on the Ecological Surface uses the concept of the ‘surface’ to examine the relationship between contemporary performance and ecocriticism. Each section looks, in turn, at the 'surfaces' of slick, smoke, sky, steam, soil, slime, snail, silk, skin and stage to build connections between ecocriticism, activism, critical theory, Shakespeare and performance. While the word ‘surface’ was never used in Shakespeare’s works, Liz Oakley-Brown shows how thinking about Shakespearean surfaces helps readers explore the politics of Elizabethan and Jacobean culture. She also draws surprising parallels with our current political and ecological concerns. The book explores how Shakespeare uses ecological surfaces to help understand other types of surfaces in his plays and poems: characters’ public-facing selves; contact zones between characters and the natural world; surfaces upon which words are written; and physical surfaces upon which plays are staged. This book will be an illuminating read for anyone studying Shakespeare, early modern culture, ecocriticism, performance and activism.

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9780367345860

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Reviews

‘It carries a political appeal to “act” as if “our collection non-human and human existence depend[ed] upon it”. For taking the discipline of ecocriticism in a new direction, its bravery and radicalism should be welcomed.’ Alice Leonard, TLS

Author Information

Liz Oakley-Brown is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University, UK. Her publications include The Rituals and Rhetoric of Queenship: Medieval to Early Modern (co-edited with Louise J. Wilkinson; 2009), Shakespeare and the Translation of Identity in Early Modern England (2011) and Twelfth Night: A Critical Reader (co-edited with Alison Findlay; 2014).

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