Engagingly written, impeccably researched, and theoretically sophisticated, Collaborations with the Past is essential reading for those interested in tracing how and why various cultural producers have struggled to lay claim to Shakespeare. Diana E. Henderson's close readings attend in often breathtaking detail not only to literary and cinematographic subtleties of the specific works under discussion but also to the various ... Read morehistorical contexts within which these uses of Shakespeare function. This is 'deep reading' at its very finest.
Douglas M. Lanier, University of New Hampshire Diana E. Henderson's highly intelligent book maps the complexities arising from the trajectories Shakespeare's reputation takes as it moves from modernity to postmodernity. By tracing how the processes of collaboration operate 'in between' Shakespeare and his present-day rewriters, the collisions she explores offer a fresh look at the particular anxieties of influence entailed in 'working with Shakespeare.'
Barbara Hodgdon, University of Michigan The most probing and productive collaborations with Shakespeare, the English past, and the 'woman's part' recorded in these pages are arguably those undertaken by Diana E. Henderson herself, in a performance made the more compelling by the unusual blend of intelligence and sheer scholarly panache with which it is tendered.
Comparative Drama
Collaborations with the Past is a thought-provoking analysis of Shakespeare's role in key periods of English cultural history, from the Romantics, represented by Sir Walter Scott, through to present-day film, television, and stage productions of The Taming of the Shrew and Henry V.
Review of English Studies
Show Less