Shakespeare and the Question of Culture: Early Modern Literature and the Cultural Turn (Early Modern Cultural Studies 1500–1700)

The last two decades have witnessed a profound change in the way we receive the literary texts of early modern England. One could call this a move from 'text' to 'culture'. Put briefly, earlier critics tended to focus on literary texts, strictly conceived: plays, poems, prose fictions, essays. Since the mid-1980s, however, it has been just as likely for critics to speak of the 'culture' of early modern England, even when they do so in conjunction with analysis of literary texts. This 'cultural turn' has clearly enriched the way in which we read the texts of early modern England, but the interdisciplinary practices involved have frequently led critics to make claims about materials - and about the 'culture' these materials appear to embody - that exceed those materials' representativeness. Shakespeare and the Question of Culture addresses the central issue of 'culture' in early modern studies through both literary history and disciplinary critique. Douglas Bruster argues that the 'culture' literary critiques investigate through the works of Shakespeare and other writers is largely a literary culture, and he examines what this necessary limitation of the scope of 'cultural studies' means for the discipline of early modern studies. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Shakespeare and the Question of Culture....Pages 3-28 Deep Focus....Pages 29-62 Front Matter....Pages 63-63 The Structural Transformation of Print in Late Elizabethan England....Pages 65-93 The Dramatic Life of Objects in the Early Modern Theater....Pages 95-118 Female-Female Eroticism and the Early Modern Stage....Pages 119-144 Front Matter....Pages 145-145 Shakespeare and the End of History....Pages 147-166 Shakespeare and the Composite Text....Pages 167-190 The New Materialism in Early Modern Studies....Pages 191-205 Conclusion....Pages 207-210 Back Matter....Pages 211-279 Publisher description: Shakespeare and the Question of Culture addresses the central issue of "culture" in early modern studies through both literary history and disciplinary critique. Bruster argues that the "culture" that critics investigate through the works of Shakespeare and other writers is largely a literary culture, and he examines what this necessary limitation of the scope of "cultural studies" means for the discipline of early modern studies

Shakespeare and the Question of Culture addresses the central issue of "culture" in early modern studies through both literary history and disciplinary critique. Bruster argues that the "culture" that critics investigate through the works of Shakespeare and other writers is largely a literary culture, and he examines what this necessary limitation of the scope of "cultural studies" means for the discipline of early modern studies.