Shakespeare in focus
This page contains a selection of resources available for Shakespeare studies - there are many more.
Crash Course: Ghosts, Murder, and More Murder - Hamlet Part 1: Crash Course Literature 203
Video length: 12min 24sec
Shakespeare's Contemporaries
Shakespeare had several contemporaries, some of whom are theorised to have co-authored or had their works misattributed to Shakespeare. Here are some popular playwrights from that time.
Beaumont & Fletcher
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher collaborated so successfully that many of Fletcher's other works are listed under their collective name. Notable works include A Maid's Tragedy (c.1609) and A King and No King (1611)
Thomas Dekker
Notable works include The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599)
John Ford
Notable works include 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore (1633)
Ben Jonson
Notable works include Volpone, or The Fox
(c. 1606) The Alchemist (1610)
Thomas Kyd
Notable works include The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587)
Christopher Marlowe
Notable works include Tamburlaine Pt I & II (c. 1578-88) and Doctor Faustus (c. 1592)
Philip Massinger
Notable works include A New Way to Pay Old Debts
(c. 1625) and The Roman Actor (c.1629)
Shakespeare reimagined
Shakespeare has inspired countless stories, adaptations, and reinterpretations across various media and through a diversity of lenses.
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Kill Shakespeare, Vol. 1: A Sea of Troubles
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This dark take on the Bard pits heroes (Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff) against villains (Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Iago) in an epic adventure to find and kill reclusive wizard, William Shakespeare. -
The Lion King
Based on Hamlet
Streamed video. Video length: 1 hour 25 min
Featuring Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones.
Directed by Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff -
Ran
Based on King Lear
Streamed video. Video length: 2 hours 40 min
Featuring Tatsuya Nakadai, Mieko Harada, Akira Terao
Director: Akira Kurosawa -
Ten things I hate about you
Based on Taming of the Shrew
Streamed video. Video length: 1 hour 34 min
Featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles.
Directed by Gil Junger
A few books from the collection
Find more resources by using our Library Catalogue.
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Shakespeare and Millennial Fiction
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This collection brings together some of the leading voices in the scholarship of Shakespearean adaptation and appropriation to examine the ways in which writers have used literary culture's most prominent historical figure to their own ends since the year 2000. The essays consider the representation of the man himself, the rethinking of his stories - often in pointed defiance of the original - and explorations of the plays radically repositioned in time and space. -
Inclusive Shakespeares : Identity, Pedagogy, Performance
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Responds to the growing concern to make Shakespeare Studies inclusive of prospective students, teachers, performers, and audiences who have occupied a historically marginalized position in relation to Shakespeare's poetry and plays. -
Think on my word: exploring Shakespeare's language.
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'You speak a language that I understand not.' Hermione's words to Leontes in The Winter's Tale are likely to ring true with many people reading or watching Shakespeare's plays today. David Crystal addresses these and many other questions in this lively and original introduction to Shakespeare's language. Covering five dimensions of language structure - writing system, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and conversational style - the book shows how examining these linguistic 'nuts and bolts' can help us achieve a greater appreciation of Shakespeare's linguistic creativity. -
Shakespeare's Storytelling: An Introduction to Genre, Character, and Technique
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A textbook focussed on specific storytelling techniques and genres that Shakespeare invented or refined. Drawing on examples from popular novels, plays, and films, the book provides an overview of how Shakespearean storytelling techniques including character flaws, conflicts, symbols, and more have been adapted by later writers and used in the modern canon. Eastman uses recognisable references and engaging language to teach the concepts and techniques most applicable to the future study of Creative Writing, English, Theatre, and Film and Media. A readable introduction to Shakespeare and his significance, this book is suitable for undergraduates.
Shakespeare Resources
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Shakespeare QuarterlyPublished by Folger Shakespeare Library in association with The Johns Hopkins University Press. Founded in 1950 by the Shakespeare Association of America, Shakespeare Quarterly is a refereed journal committed to publishing articles in the vanguard of Shakespeare studies.
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Shakespeare StudiesPublished by the Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. An international volume of essays, studies and reviews dealing with the cultural history of early modern England and the place of Shakespeare's production in it.
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ShakespearePublished by the British Shakespeare Association. '... publishes articles drawn from the best international research on the most recent developments in Shakespearean criticism, historical and textual scholarship, and performance'.
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Shakespeare BulletinPublished by The Johns Hopkins University Press. A peer-reviewed quarterly journal which publishes articles at the cutting edge of Shakespearean and early modern performance studies and theatre history.
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Learning on ScreenThis authoritative online database of Shakespeare-related content in film, television, radio and video recordings is international in scope, is regularly updated and currently holds over 10,000 records dating from the 1890s to the present day.
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Shakespeare's WordsThis comprehensive site includes searchable databases; including glossary, thesaurus, complete works, themes, topics, characters and lines.
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Open Source ShakepeareKeyword searchable database of Shakespeare's complete works, including sonnets, poems, and plays
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Shakespeare Unlimited podcastWilliam Shakespeare and his works are woven throughout global culture, from theatre, music, and films to new scholarship, education, amazing discoveries, and more. this podcast, Shakespeare opens a window into topics ranging from the American West, to the real history of Elizabethan street fighting, to interviews with Shakespearean stars. As you’ll hear, he turns up in surprising places, too—including outer space.
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Royal Shakespeare Company: Shakespeare's plays, and his life and timesBackground and information for all of Shakespeare's plays, including synopses and videos of plays being performed, plus key past RSC productions.
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Shakespeare: read the First FolioThe Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, received a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623 and produced a digitised copy in 2013. Here you can leaf through the original printed pages, and find cameos from well-known Shakespeare lovers, and from researchers and experts who work on this book.
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Shakespearean tragedy: lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, MacbethLectures by A.C. Bradley, now published in Project Gutenberg Online Catalog but originally published in 1904. Bradley was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford University in 1901. His Shakespearean analysis and literary criticism was highly influential.