Shakespearean Language and the Public Sphere - Performance and Staged Meaning

Through a close reading of Shakespeare''s works, Nigel Wood argues for the power of Shakespeare''s dramatic language to shape the consciousness of the audiences of his time and to play a role in the development of a public sphere in early modern England. He traces the verbal patterning and repetition of a range of keywords across plays, distinguishing between their accepted meaning and the potency of performance to introduce fluid nuances of meaning and significance. It takes seriously therefore the plays- status as oral performances and the ways in which his language would have resonated with early modern audiences.Beginning by establishing an approach to Shakespeare-s playtexts from the perspective of an audience witnessing a gradually unfolding action, Wood addresses the power of language to create episodes of shock or revelation. Uniting this with Habermas''s sense of a Public Sphere, he explores the role of the theatre and early modern audiences in contributing to the Public Spher