Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of Conversion

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Stephen Wittek

    1. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Argues that Shakespearean drama made a substantive intervention in public discourse surrounding conversion
  • Situates Shakespeare within a long, ongoing legacy of conversional theorization
  • Posits conversion not as a religious idea, but as cultural phenomenon centered on fluid yet stable tropes

Part of the book series: Early Modern Literature in History (EMLH)

  • 997 Accesses

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Turning into Other Things

    • Stephen Wittek
    Pages 1-21

  3. What We Talk About When We Talk About Conversion

    • Stephen Wittek
    Pages 23-56

  4. Conversion, Coercion, and Persuasion in The Taming of the Shrew

    • Stephen Wittek
    Pages 57-78

  5. The Politics of Conversion in Henry IV, Part 1

    • Stephen Wittek
    Pages 79-95

  6. Conversional Transactions in The Merchant of Venice

    • Stephen Wittek
    Pages 97-115

  7. Citizenship and Conversion in Othello

    • Stephen Wittek
    Pages 117-132

  8. Colonialism and Conversion in The Tempest

    • Stephen Wittek
    Pages 133-153

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 155-200
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of Conversion takes a close look at Shakespeare’s engagement with the flurry of controversy and activity surrounding the concept of conversion in post-Reformation England. For playhouse audiences during the period, conversional thought encompassed a diverse, fluid amalgamation of ideas, practices, and arguments centered on the means by which an individual could move from one category of identity to another. In an analysis that includes chapter-length readings of The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV Part I, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Tempest, Professor Stephen Wittek argues that Shakespearean drama made a unique and substantive intervention in public discourse surrounding conversion, and continues to speak meaningfully about conversional experience for audiences in the present age. It will be of particular benefit to students and scholars with an interest in theatrical history, performance theory, cultural studies, race studies, and gender studies.

Reviews

“Stephen Wittek’s monograph is best understood—and he does situate it—in the context of recent humanities-centred investigations of conversion that rely on cultural studies approaches. These recent books and essay collec­tions build on both theologically focused and social science (especially psycho­logical) studies of religious conversion while putting more emphasis on textual evidence, especially on the textuality of conversion accounts and representa­tions. Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of Conversion helpfully summarizes much of this existing scholarship ... .” (Erin E Kelley, Renaissance and Reformation, Vol. 46 (1), 2023) “I read Wittek’s Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of Conversion with great pleasure and admiration. It manages, as the best literary scholarship and criticism do, to combine a vast canvas with extremely sharp and tightly focused observations about particular works and their characters.  And it clarifies a complex subject without ever simplifying it. On the contrary, what I most admired was Wittek’s vision of a Shakespeare who steadily grapples with the toughest questions – and forces us to grapple with them – precisely by refusing to settle on one or another definitive answer.” (Stephen Greenblatt, Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University) 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

    Stephen Wittek

About the author

Stephen Wittek is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. He is the author of The Media Players: Shakespeare, Middleton, Jonson, and the Idea of News (2015), and co-editor of two multi-authored collections: Performing Conversion: Cities, Theatre and Early Modern Transformations (2021) and Shakespeare and Virtual Reality (2021). His work has also appeared in journals including Studies in English Literature, Digital Humanities Quarterly, and Journal of Cognitive History. 

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation