Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements PART ONE: Chapter One: Text Chapter Two: Shakespeare Chapter Three: Matter Chapter Four: Confluence PART TWO: Chapter Five: Texts and Contexts - King Lear Chapter Six: Notes and Queries - Macbeth Chapter Seven: Visions and Revisions - Hamlet Chapter Eight: Writing and Fighting - Henry V Conclusion: Writing in the Dust. Postscript

About the Author

Holderness is well-known in Shakespeare scholarship as one of the pioneers of cultural materialist criticism, as well as a significant contributor to historical, performance and textual studies. Now as Shakespeare criticism and scholarship are registering the impact of such theoretically-inspired work he characteristically goes further than other writers in pushing forward a new approach and a new agenda. He is author, co-author or editor of 31 books, 22 of which are on Shakespeare, and include Shakespeare's History (1985), The Shakespeare Myth (1988), Shakespeare: the Histories (2000) and the two volumes which this volume concludes, Cultural Shakespeare: essays in the Shakespeare myth (2001) and Visual Shakespeare: essays on film and television (2002). Holderness has also published original verse translations and a critical survey of Anglo-Saxon poetry, Anglo-Saxon Verse (Northcote House, 2000). His first novel, The Prince of Denmark, was published by the University of Hertfordshire Press last year. Graham Holderness is Professor of English, Dean of Humanities, Languages and Education, and Director of Research Policy at the University of Hertfordshire. He lives in London, England.

Reviews

"Graham Holderness's book forms a bold, imaginative, and remarkably wide-ranging contribution to thought about the origins and presentation of Shakespeare's text." Professor Stanley Wells, Associate Editor, Penguin Shakespare and General Editor, Oxford Shakespeare. "Graham Holderness brilliantly explores the inevitable desire for, and the necessary frustration in finding, the Shakespearean original that lies behind the printed texts of his plays. In this unusually alert, sophisticated and lively book, Holderness shows us how the printed plays reflect the complexity of their production, and in the process, he reminds us that writing itself is a central way in which we try to make sense of our world." Professor David Scott Kastan, Columbia University, Joint General Editor, Arden Shakespeare.