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Shakespeare Broadcasts and the Question of Value

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2025

Beth Sharrock
Affiliation:
University of Warwick

Summary

This Element investigates the framing 'texts' of Shakespeare's works in live theatre broadcasts produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite growing engagement from scholars of digital Shakespeares with the phenomenon of broadcast theatre and the aesthetics of filmed productions, the paratexts which accompany the live-streams − live or pre-recorded features, including interviews and short films − have largely been ignored. The Element considers how RSC live broadcasts of rarely performed, often critically maligned works are mediated for contemporary audiences, focusing on The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2014), Titus Andronicus (2017), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (2018). It questions the role of the theatre institution as a powerful broker in the (re)negotiation of hierarchies of value within Shakespeare's canon. Individual sections also trace the longer genealogies of paratextual value-narratives in print, proposing that broadcast paratexts be understood as participating in a broader history of Shakespearean paratexts in print and performance.
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Online ISBN: 9781009417990
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 06 March 2025

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Shakespeare Broadcasts and the Question of Value
  • Beth Sharrock, University of Warwick
  • Online ISBN: 9781009417990
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Shakespeare Broadcasts and the Question of Value
  • Beth Sharrock, University of Warwick
  • Online ISBN: 9781009417990
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Shakespeare Broadcasts and the Question of Value
  • Beth Sharrock, University of Warwick
  • Online ISBN: 9781009417990
Available formats
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