Shakespeare and Disability Theory

Shakespeare and Disability Theory provides a detailed overview of performance history and scholarly criticism at the intersection of disability theory and Shakespeare studies via close readings of Shakespeare's plays. Genevieve Love explores the contemporary debates about disability representations on stage through close readings of Shakespeare plays and performances. This approach to disability in Shakespeare highlights the importance of embodiment over representation in how we understand performance. By mapping out the central ideas of disability theory in Shakespeare studies, Love tracks the emergence of disability theory as a field. Its influence and various methodologies in literary studies illustrate the power of disability theory to reframe familiar ideas in Shakespeare and to illuminate unfamiliar ones. Character-based representations of disability through archetypal figures like Richard III provide an extended case study on disability in Shakespeare through analysing its performance history and casting choices. Further character-based representations consider neurodivergence in Hamlet and King Lear, epilepsy in Julius Caesar and Othello, and amputation in Titus Andronicus. These examples act as one layer in an expansive understanding of disability that historicises configurations of disability in the early modern period more generally. Intersectional approaches add more examples of multiple embodiments of disability and open the field up to questions of access and accessibility in Shakespeare. Such examples are explained in detail to pave the way for creative engagement with disability that challenges outmoded methods for Shakespeare students, scholars, and practitioners.