Shakespeare and Complexity Theory

by Claire Hansen

Overview

In this new monograph, Claire Hansen demonstrates how Shakespeare can be understood as a complex system, and how complexity theory can provide compelling and original readings of Shakespeare’s plays. The book utilises complexity theory to illuminate early modern theatrical practice, Shakespeare pedagogy, and the phenomenon of the Shakespeare ‘myth’. The monograph re-evaluates Shakespeare, his plays, early modern theatre, and modern classrooms as complex systems, illustrating how the lens of complexity offers an enlightening new perspective on diverse areas of Shakespeare scholarship. The book’s interdisciplinary approach enriches our understanding of Shakespeare and lays the foundation for complexity theory in Shakespeare studies and the humanities more broadly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138291287
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/01/2017
Series:	Routledge Studies in Shakespeare
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Claire Hansen is a researcher on the Shakespeare Reloaded Project at the University of Sydney.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

List of Figures

Introduction: Shakespeare, the System

1: The Characteristics of Complexity

2: ‘Like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all disordered’: Dance and bounded instability in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

3: ‘Hath the firmament more suns than one?’ Co-authorship, space and self-organisation in Titus Andronicus

4: ‘Such Branches of Learning’: The Unexpected in Shakespeare Pedagogy and The Merchant of Venice

5: ‘Constant as the Northern Star’? The Power of Attractors in Stratford-upon-Avon and Julius Caesar

Conclusion

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

Shakespeare and Complexity Theory is a mind-expanding and discipline-shattering text. It is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding complexity theory and its relevance to literary studies. The book illuminates the ‘Shakespeare’ phenomenon as a complex array of interlocking systems reaching from authorship to collaboration, storytelling to theatrical practice, dance to pedagogy, and natural to cultural environments. Exciting new readings of canonical plays are enabled by leveraging complexivist principles such as bounded instability, self-organisation, emergence and attractors.—Professor Liam E. Semler, University of Sydney

"Shakespeare and Complexity Theory displays a kind of breathtaking intellectual energy here that carries all before it." – Evelyn Tribble, Donald Collie Chair, University of Otago

From the Publisher