Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
In approaching a collection of essays on developments in the digital humanities, one might question the validity of Shakespeare as a case study. However, I would suggest that the strength of the community of scholars who work in this field is that while the work encompasses the analysis of the approaches of actors, directors, playwrights and, increasingly, reviewers, librarians and archivists, within the society we live in today, as well as across many time periods and geographic locations, the subject field shares a common series of reference points. The plays, and the character situations they illuminate, provide an abundance of role models for critics to follow. In this final chapter of the final section of the collection I would like to look at the role of the critic of the future by testing out that role in Shakespearean terms. What sort of critical debate can an embattled academy have in the increasingly competitive but also incoherent online world? What follows is a contemplation of just some of the options available to us as a community, taking seriously, and for granted, the notion that there is value in focusing on ‘the analysis and creation of powerfully styled writing’ (O’Dair, 124).
Controlling the gaze in the new millennium
Feminist criticism has championed the importance of the personal account and has highlighted the individual experience as political since the 1970s. Laura Mulvey’s identification of the female viewer’s need to split herself into subject and object, being both the viewer and the viewed, to accommodate the mostly male director’s perspective, began a field of reception theory that has influenced performance criticism ever since. Experimental theatre, which changes from one performance to the next, also has required a critical response that is specific and personal.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.