Routledge - Shakespeare, Politics, and Italy Academic Book

Explore the deep connections between Italian culture and Jacobean theatre in this scholarly work from the Anglo-Italian Renaissance Studies series. Michael J. Redmond examines how references to Italy in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries were more than just isolated gestures. Instead, he shows how early modern intertextuality functioned through a process of allusion, quotation, and revision. This book looks past individual narrative sources to highlight the role of Italian textual precedents. Redmond examines how these connections helped stage domestic anxieties regarding nationalism, state crisis, and court intrigue. By focusing on the self-conscious rehearsal of existing texts, this study provides a new way to understand the political and cultural layers of the Jacobean stage. It is an essential resource for students and scholars of performing arts, playwriting, and Renaissance history.