'Shakespeare's Theatrical Documents': Text ↔ Performance, &c.

March 20, 2016 Claire M. L. Bourne

Detail of Romeo & Juliet (1597), STC 22322, Folger Shakespeare Library — Detail of *Romeo & Juliet* (1597), STC 22322, Folger Shakespeare Library

I had the privilege of participating in this weekend’s Folger Institute symposium, “Shakespeare’s Theatrical Documents.” What follows is an attempt to synthesize some of the main threads of thought that emerged out of the weekend. These comments represent my own take-aways from the event. If my account seems abstract, it's only because I don't want to speak for the other participants, whose exceptional work for the symposium will surely find its way into a more public place over the next few years.

Organized by Tiffany Stern (Oxford University) and Owen Williams (Folger Institute), the symposium was designed to...

Why I Loved the Star

February 16, 2016 Claire M. L. Bourne

A set of asterisks in The Adventure of Five Hours (London: Henry Herringman, 1663), T3229, Folger Shakespeare Library — A set of asterisks in *The Adventure of Five Hours* (London: Henry Herringman, 1663), T3229, Folger Shakespeare Library

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about stars.

In early November, Twitter replaced its ★ button with a ♥ button. Many Twitter users reacted negatively to the change, lamenting the loss of the ★'s neutrality, on the one hand, and its multi-valence, on the other. Clicking ★ underneath a tweet never automatically signaled agreement, but it is hard not to feel you're agreeing with a tweet when you click ♥ (especially when Twitter itself explicitly equates ♥-ing something with liking it).

The other day, I was writing about the use of asterisks in seventeenth-century English playbooks...

Thoughts Towards an Essay: Typography is/as Pedagogy

January 21, 2016 Claire M. L. Bourne

Detail of The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark (1676), Horace Howard Furness Memorial Shakespeare Library, University of Pennsylvania, PR2807 A1 1676b. — Detail of *The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark* (1676), Horace Howard Furness Memorial Shakespeare Library, University of Pennsylvania, PR2807 A1 1676b.

This coming March, I'm participating in a seminar at the Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting called "Teaching Textual Studies in/through Shakespeare," organized by Sarah Nevill and Brett Hirsch. I considered writing about one of the assignment I designed for my Shakespeare course last term—making a quarto or adopt-a-book. I thought writing about them at some length would give me occasion to reflect on what worked well and what I need to tweak if I use them again. Both assignments were attempts to teach early modern textual histories at an institution that has special collections that skew sharply post-1900, so I thought I might also discuss these assignments in that context.

But then I remembered a conversation I had with a few people on Twitter last year...

READ MORE . . .