Shakespeare and Modernity: Early Modern to Millennium.

Grady, Hugh, ed. Shakespeare and Modernity: Early Modern to Millennium (Accents on Shakespeare.) New York: Routledge, 2000. xii + 210 pp.' index. $20.99. ISBN: 0-415-21200-6.

The essays in this collection draw from the theoretical work of Foucault, the Annales School, the Frankfurt School, Habermas, and contemporary academic philosophers such as Charles Taylor and Stephen Toulmin, as well as theories of subjectivity that converge around Lacanian psychoanalysis, feminism, and French poststructuralism; they are dedicated to "probing the issues at stake in Shakespeare's relationship to that particular constellation of cultural events which has come to be known as 'modernity.'" The introduction provides a general historical overview of how Shakespeare has been situated in relation to a given period's concept of its own modernity. A full index and a bibliography are included. Essays include: Grady, Hugh, "Introduction: Shakespeare and Modernity"; Cohen, Stephen, "(Post)modern Elizabeth: Gender, Politics, and the Emergence of Modern Subjectivity"; Whitney, Charles, "Ante-aesthetics: Towards a Theory of Early Modern Audience Response"; Joughin, John J., "Shakespeare, Modernity, and the Aesthetic: Art, Truth, and Judgement in The Winter's Tale"; Engle, Lars, "Measure for Measure and Modernity: The Problem of the Sceptic's Authority"; Drakakis, John, "'Jew. Shylock is my name.': Speech Prefixes in The Merchant of Venice as Symptoms of the Early Modern"; Freinkel, Lisa, "The Merchant of Venice: 'Modern' Anti-Semitism and the Veil of Allegory"; Mallin, Eric S., "Jewish Invader and the Soul of State: The Merchant of Venice and Science Fiction Movies"; Bruster, Douglas, "Shakespeare and the End of History: Period as Brand Name"; Charnes, Linda, "The Hamlet Formerly Known as Prince."