In the 1980s, New Historicism was a strikingly innovative way of examining literary history, as well as practicing literary theory. Greatly influenced by the work of Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault, New Historicists in America and their British counterparts, Cultural Materialists, set to rewrite the history of Western literature in such a way as to challenge what they considered the socio-p...

In A Lover's Complaint, Shakespeare registers concerns about a penitent's inability to overcome the effects of sin and emphasizes the importance of private or auricular confession. By representing what amounts to be the confession ofa 'fickle maid' (5) to a 'reverend man' (57), Shakespeare underscores the paradox of the Protestant confessional model: if a penitent can be forgiven of sins withou...

In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare implies in a fascinating way that before the main action of the play there was what I shall call a 'pre-history', namely a story of an earlier involvement between Benedick and Beatrice. It is this `prehistory' which I wish to examine and clarify here, as I think that it is usually overlooked, or at least not adequately understood. The implied scenario logi...

Using Shakespeare’s criticism and archival theory as lenses, this article enlarges understandings of the interconnections between a complex television series Shakespeare. Forming Shakespearean archive, Sons Anarchy (SOA), based on Hamlet other plays by Shakespeare, is packed with allusions, rather than citations, whose impact in overall work yet to be explored. formations, identifiable series’ ...