Shakespeare's traces in the contemporary English-speaking literary scene

Shakespeare’s Traces in the Contemporary English-Speaking Literary Scene analyzes the importance of Shakespeare’s legacy in redefining a sense of identity. The book extends the field of research beyond the British literary scene to the wider English-speaking literary world. Contemporary rewritings of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, The Tempest and Hamlet have been analyzed, ranging from noncommissioned reappropriations to those included in institutionally recognized projects such as the Hogarth Shakespeare Series. In a literary panorama in which the boundaries of the here and now are increasingly blurred and cannot be reduced to fixed categories, Shakespeare’s Traces emphasizes the power of the word. It expands from Foucault’s heterotopia to the theorization of a new concept of space including places and social relations in the rewriting of one of the possible pages of history. In an attempt to show how different points of view might contribute to the redefinition of a sense of identity, this book highlights the importance of each voice – no longer considered as being on the margins, but in the uniqueness of its identitarian values – in a process of reappropriation of the Self. This Self takes into consideration complex cultural and social components as well as the multifaceted nature of the human soul. This book examines the close relationship between word and power – highlighted by Foucault – with a strong impact on novel writing, and delves into the historical-philosophical developments of Hayden White’s theories in the rewriting of a process which leads to considering the role of literature as history in the making. Shakespeare’s Traces embarks the reader on a complex journey of rediscovery of the Self and of the multifaceted fabric of reality the postmodern man lives and acts in.