Publishing the History Play in the Time of Shakespeare: Stationers Shaping a Genre

The publication process shaped the history play and its reception, with stationers constructing influential expectations and ideas surrounding the genre. Amy Lidster challenges the uncritical use of Shakespeare's Folio as a touchstone, exposing the harmful ways it has solidified its parameters. Reframing the Folio as a single example of participation in genre-making, this book illuminates the diverse range of historical pasts available to readers and audiences in the early modern period.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 299 pages
Publication date: 29 February 2024
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

During the early modern period, the publication process played a pivotal role in shaping the history play and its reception. By combining genre criticism and book history methodologies, this study argues that stationers, through their selective choices and presentation, have constructed influential expectations and ideas surrounding the genre. In her groundbreaking work, Amy Lidster challenges the uncritical use of Shakespeare's Folio as a benchmark for the history play, exposing the harmful implications of this approach, which has limited the genre to solely focusing on the lives of English kings. Instead, Lidster reframes the Folio as a single instance of participation in genre-making, shedding light on the diverse range of historical pasts that were accessible to readers and audiences during the early modern period. By inviting us to reevaluate the relationship between plays on stage and in print and to reexamine the role of playbooks within the historical culture and geopolitics of the book trade, this book offers a fresh perspective on the history play and its place within the broader literary landscape.

ISBN-13: 9781009044493