Dear readers.
Rivlin, Elizabeth
Dear Readers,
It is my pleasure to introduce Volume XXVIII (2009), "Politics
and the Citizen in Shakespeare." This issue marks a transitional
moment for The Upstart Crow: it is the last volume to draw on the annual
Clemson Shakespeare Festival, which came to a conclusion in 2008. Thus,
this volume is an occasion to celebrate the wealth of scholarship and
the invigorating exchange of ideas inspired by the Shakespeare Festival
during its seventeen-year run, while looking forward to a new chapter
for The Upstart Crow, which we initiate in 2010 with a special
guest-edited issue.
Our two lead essays this year are derived from the 2008 Clemson
Shakespeare Festival and consider "Politics and the Citizen"
from different angles. Margaret Maurer, Colgate University, writes about
the poet in Julius Caesar as a way of considering poetry's role in
discourses of politics and citizenship. Nicholas Radel, Furman
University, calls for a re-consideration of the early modern politics of
race and sexuality in Romeo and Juliet as refracted through Baz
Luhrmann's late twentieth-century film adaptation. Essays by
Stephanie Chamberlain and Gabriel Rieger speak to the mutual
constitution of the public and private spheres in, respectively, The
Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The issue also
features provocative essays by James Stone, on the ambivalent
connotations of gold in The Merchant of Venice, and Fred Blick, on the
tennis metaphor in Shakespeare's Sonnet 88.
The book review section, edited by Henry Turner, Rutgers
University, synthesizes many of the volume's approaches to politics
and citizenship, with reviews of recent studies by Julia Reinhard
Lupton, Andrew Hadfield, Oliver Arnold, Paul Kottman, and Paul
Griffiths. Our performance reviews address important productions staged
in both the UK and the US, including performances by the Globe Theatre,
the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival, and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
With Volume XXIX, scheduled for 2010, The Upstart Crow begins to
pursue new opportunities. Leslie Dunn, Vassar College, and Wes Folkerth,
McGill University, are guest-editing a section of essays on
"Shakespearean Hearing," based on a seminar they led recently
at the Shakespeare Association of America. Complementary book and
performance reviews will round out what promises to be an innovative
exploration of the auditory in Shakespeare's plays and theater. In
addition to continuing to publish a wide range of new scholarship, we
look forward to generating future issues on special themes and topics,
whether arising from conference seminars or from proposals by scholars.
Thank you for your interest in The Upstart Crow. I hope that you
enjoy this issue.
Elizabeth Rivlin
Editor
