The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Early Modern Authorship

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Early Modern Authorship draws together leading and emerging scholars of Shakespeare and early modern literature to consider anew how authorship worked in the time in which Shakespeare wrote, and to interrogate the construction of the Shakespeare-as-author figure. Composed of four main sections, it offers fresh analysis of the literary and cultural influences and forces that 'formed' authors in the period; the 'mechanics' of early modern authorship; the 'mediation' of Shakespeare and others' works in performance, manuscript, and print; and the critical and popular reimagining across times of Shakespeare as an author figure.

Diving into modern debates about early modern authorship, authority, and identity politics, contributors supply rich new accounts of the wider scene of professional authorship in early modern England, of how Shakespeare's writings contributed to it, and of what made him distinctive within it. Looking beyond Shakespeare, the Handbook seeks to provide a vital testing ground for new research into early modern literature and culture more broadly.

Rory Loughnane, Reader in Early Modern Studies, University of Kent,Will Sharpe, Teaching Fellow in Shakespeare, University of Birmingham

Rory Loughnane is Reader in Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent. He is the author or editor of many books, including, most recently, Editing Archipelagic Shakespeare (with Willy Maley), and has edited more than ten of Shakespeare's plays for the New Oxford Shakespeare. He is a General Editor of The Revels Plays series and the CADRE (Co-Authored Drama in Renaissance England) database, and a Series Editor of Routledge's Studies in Early Modern Authorship and Cambridge's Shakespeare and Text.

Will Sharpe is a full-time Teaching Fellow in Shakespeare at the University of Birmingham and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of Warwick and Leeds. He contributed a monograph-length study on 'Authorship and Attribution' to the RSC volume William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays (2013), and edited All Is True: Or, King Henry VIII for The New Oxford Shakespeare (2016). He is a revising editor of the updated Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2015) and is editing Henry VI for the Arden Shakespeare Series. He is also one of the General Editors of Digital Renaissance Editions.

1. Introduction, Rory LoughnanePART I: SHAKESPEARE AND AUTHOR FORMATION2. Classical Inheritance, Heather James3. Medieval Inheritance, Tamara Atkin4. Religion, Adrian Streete5. Language and Sociolect, Mel Evans6. Gender, Gabrielle Golinelli and Iolanda Plescia7. Sexuality, Bruce R. Smith8. Kinds of Author, Andrew Hadfield9. Textual Environments, Andrew Gordon10. Material Environments, Tara Hamling and Catherine Richardson11. Theatrical Environments, Terri Bourus12. Competition, Jeremy Lopez13. Economics, Meryl Faiers and Martin WigginsPART II: SHAKESPEARE AND THE MECHANICS OF AUTHORSHIP14. Research, Dennis Britton and Melissa Walter15. Tools and Materials, Joshua Calhoun and Jonathan Walker16. Solo Authorship, Andrew Mattison17. Collaboration, Heather A. Hirschfeld18. Casting, Andrew J. Power19. Music, Amanda Eubanks Winkler20. Adaptation and Revision, Will Sharpe21. Genre, Brett Greatley-Hirsch and Sarah Neville22. Form, Lisa Hopkins23. Style, Hugh CraigPART III: MEDIATING SHAKESPEARE AS AUTHOR24. Early Performance, James J. Marino25. Preliminaries and Paratexts, Amy Lidster26. Textual Space, Jennifer Young27. Typography, Claire M. L. Bourne28. Variant Texts, John Jowett29. Collections, Tara L. Lyons30. Annotation, Eric Rasmussen and Ian De Jong31. Editions and Canonization, 1623-2024, José A. Pérez DíezPART IV: CONCEPTS AND CRITIQUES32. Literary Author, Patrick Cheney33. Court Dramatist, Eoin Price and Catherine Clifford34. Populist, Chris Fitter35. National Playwright, Claire McEachern36. Attribution and Editing, Jesús Tronch37. Attribution and Intersectionality, Rachel White38. Feminist Authorship Studies, Cristina León Alfar39. Queer Authorship Studies, Alan Stewart40. Authorship and Othering, Michael Joel Bartelle41. Screening Authorship, Performativity, and Transness, Alexa Alice Joubin42. Authorship and Cognitive Studies, Laurie Johnson43. Ecologies of Authorship, Vin Nardizzi44. The Politics of Attribution, Gary Taylor