Shakespearean Territories

By Stuart Elden

Book Overview

Shakespeare was an astute observer of contemporary life, culture, and politics. The emerging practice of territory as a political concept and technology did not elude his attention. In Shakespearean Territories , Stuart Elden reveals just how much Shakespeare's unique historical position and political understanding can teach us about territory. Shakespeare dramatized a world of technological advances in measuring, navigation, cartography, and surveying, and his plays open up important ways of thinking about strategy, economy, the law, and colonialism, providing critical insight into a significant juncture in history. Shakespeare's plays explore many territorial themes: from the division of the kingdom in King Lear, to the relations among Denmark, Norway, and Poland in Hamlet , to questions of disputed land and the politics of banishment in Richard II . Elden traces how Shakespeare developed a nuanced understanding of the complicated concept and practice of territory and, more broadly, the political-geographical relations between people, power, and place. A meticulously researched study of over a dozen classic plays, Shakespearean Territories will provide new insights for geographers, political theorists, and Shakespearean scholars alike.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 022655919X
• ISBN13: 9780226559193
• Release Date: December 2018
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"