The Shakespearean International Yearbook ─ Special Section, Shakespeare on Site

The four hundredth anniversary of the Shakespeare’s death in 2016 promises a wealth of programming to ensure that his cultural legacy, entertainment value and economic impact that will extend across the world. The essays assembled for this 16th issue of The Shakespearean International Yearbook form another testament to the scope of attention Shakespeare and his plays now garner in both national and international contexts. Across the sites that these essays explore, scholars illustrate the complexity and diversity of this globally relevant and recognized Shakespeare – to understand the reproduction of his plays in the twenty-first century in those places well-known and often recognized for their contributions to contemporary knowledge of the works, but also in geographic and historical contexts less often acknowledged or explored. The Special Section “Shakespeare on Site” examines, then, how cultural performances of many kinds contribute to the experiences and meanings of place – whether local, regional, or national – and how these different practices elaborate our notions of what has come to be called, both in popular and scholarly discourses, “global Shakespeare.”

Tom Bishop is based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Alexa Huang is Professor of English at The George Washington University and Research Affiliate in Literature at MIT, USA. Susan Bennett is based at the University of Calgary, Canada.