New Historicism and Cultural Materialism

Abstract

THE preceding chapters have largely been concerned to show how the new ways of reading Shakespeare produce a very different kind of discussion and debate about the plays. One way of summarising this debate is to talk about the way recent criticism, and perhaps especially feminist criticism, makes it evident that Shakespeare’s plays are not timeless or universal but are part of the struggles of the early modem period, the period usually referred to as the Renaissance. More narrowly, they belong to the final years of Elizabeth I’s reign, the 1590s, and the early years of James I’s rule (Elizabeth died in 1603; James as James VI was already king of Scotland, and became James I of England, so uniting the two kingdoms). The 1590s especially were a time of turbulence, with riots, food shortages and anxiety about who would succeed Elizabeth, an anxiety not lessened by the Earl of Essex’s rebellion in 1601 and his attempted coup. James’s succession was marked by a deepening rift between the crown and parliament as well as continued fears about Catholic conspiracies. The famous gunpowder plot of 1605 is symptomatic of this turmoil of the early modem period in which Protestant states like England and Holland were either at war or under threat from Catholic countries like Spain and France. If all of this seems remote, it may help to remember that many of the most violent events in Ireland’s history belong to this period and that the consequences of those events have dominated much of twentiethcentury life in Ireland.