William Shakespeare

Introduction: Shakespeare's life and legacy

ch. 1. Shakespeare, the man 1. Shakespeare's life and work / David Bevington 2. Gaps in the biography provoke questions about Shakespeare's authorship / Diana Price 3. The testimony of his contemporaries confirms Shakespeare's identity / Jonathan Bate

ch .2. Shakespeare's works : "of an age and for all time" 1. Shakespeare both imitates and influences his contemporaries / Martin Wiggins 2. Shakespeare is enshrined as Britain's National Poet in the eighteenth century / Michael Dobson 3. Shakespeare is "alive" and thriving in the twentieth century / Joseph Papp and Elizabeth Kirkland

ch .3. Shakespeare's legacy 1. Shakespeare revolutionized the concept of character / Harold Bloom 2. Shakespeare coined fifteen hundred new words / Jeffrey McQuain and Stanley Malless 3. Shakespeare perfected dramatic blank verse / George T. Wright 4. Shakespeare's works inspire songs, operas, and orchestral arrangements / Ellen T. Harris 5. Shakespeare's works influence poets, novelists, and dramatists / John Gross 6. Shakespeare's works invite compelling reworkings / Martha Tuck Rozett

ch. 4. Shakespeare permeates popular culture

1. Franco Zeffirelli popularized Shakespeare in film / Robert Hapgood

2. Shakespeare goes Hollywood in the 1990s / Lynda E. Boose and Richart Burt

3. Shakespeare : the animated tales / James R. Andreas

4. Shakespeare for everyone / Graham Holderness.