Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

Abstract

Reading one hundred and fifteen books on English Renaissance drama is uniquely exhausting, but it's also a great privilege since it offers a rare opportunity to see the field whole. Although "whole" isn't quite the right word since one is hardly left with the impression of unity or coherence. This variegation makes introducing and framing an essay of this sort difficult. There are a couple of general observations I can make from the outset though. First, it's been driven home for me that a brilliant, paradigmshifting book can be produced at any career stage. A number of the studies I found most impressive were first books. Second, there's no one approach or subdiscipline leading our field. Among the books I expect to be particularly influential are studies dealing with book history, queer theory, and the history of ideas, and a number that don't fit into any of our usual critical categories.Of course, if our field is not dominated by one approach, it is dominated by one author. Some prefatory groans about the predominance of Shakespeare have become standard in this annual review, and I'm happy to join the chorus. But I also think Shakespeare has been an enabler of the diversity of critical perspectives that make our field exceptionally vital. The undeniable marketing benefits of the "Shakespeare" moniker can be especially important when it comes to securing the support of major presses for unorthodox or experimental work. There are plenty of reasons