Key research themes
1. How does Shakespeare’s work engage with and reflect early modern legal culture and practices?
This research area focuses on situating Shakespeare's plays and writings within the context of early modern English legal systems, exploring how legal language, practices, and culture influence Shakespeare’s dramaturgy and narrative techniques. It matters because it moves beyond abstract or philosophical readings of law in Shakespeare to historically grounded analyses that reveal the integral role of legal institutions and forms in shaping the plays, characters, and themes. This grounded approach challenges older assumptions and develops a richer understanding of the relationship between literature and law in the period.
2. How do Shakespeare’s plays explore the political dimensions of law, power, and governance?
This theme investigates Shakespeare’s dramatic representations of political authority, kinship, and the law’s role in sustaining or challenging the body politic. It involves interrogating the plays as reflections on power struggles, legitimacy, and the relationship between subjects and sovereigns, often through metaphors like the body politic. This research is significant for revealing how Shakespeare’s political wisdom remains relevant to modern understandings of governance, justice, and democratic theory.
3. How do Shakespeare’s plays use legal rhetoric and concepts to construct ethical and political persuasion and notions of justice?
This research area examines Shakespeare’s deployment of legal and rhetorical concepts to navigate themes of justice, ethical behavior, and persuasion. It includes the study of how temporal concepts, legal language, and bonds are used theatrically for moralistic and political effect, highlighting the intersection of law, rhetoric, and theatrical performance in shaping audience perceptions about authority, justice, and communal values.