Routledge Shakespeare, Performance and the Archive - Routledge

Shakespeare, Performance and the Archive offers a ground-breaking exploration of what persists when theatrical performance ends. This movingly written volume examines the 'leftovers' of performance-documents, material objects, sketches, drawings and photographs-to understand how they reveal embodied practices and scenarios of action. The analysis moves between the politics of what is consciously archived and the politics of visible and invisible theatrical labour, tracing how these artefacts serve as traces of performance itself. Rather than treating archival materials as mere indexical records, Hodgdon considers how they explore and preserve the essence of theatrical practice, offering readers a sophisticated examination of performance history and its material legacy.