Shakespeare, Memory and Performance

Shakespeare, Memory and Performance, first published in 2006, is a collection of essays which provide a meeting between the flourishing fields of memory studies and Shakespeare performance studies. The chapters, by leading Shakespeare critics, explore a wide range of topics, including Shakespeare's own use of memory and memories evoked by costumes and props.

'Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe.' Hamlet's lines pun on the globe as both his skull and the Globe Theatre. But what does memory have to do with Shakespeare and performances past and present? This collection of essays, first published in 2006, provides a meeting between the flourishing fields of memory studies and Shakespeare performance studies. The chapters explore a wide range of topics, from the means by which editors of Shakespeare plays try to help their readers remember performance to the ways actors sometimes forget Shakespeare's lines, from the evocative memories instilled in the archives of costumes to the photographing of props that act as memories of performances past. The fifteen contributors are leaders in the field of Shakespeare performance studies and their considerations of the possibilities of the subject open up a rich new vein in Shakespeare studies.