Adaptation and early modern culture have provided a particularly fruitful area of study in recent years. Yet very often such studies have tended to focus primarily on Shakespeare and on film. The purpose of this special issue of Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association, is not only to add to this focus, but to expand it. The title of the issue has been chosen to allow a wide field of exploration for contributors, including as it does both adaptation in early modern culture, and adaptation of early modern culture in later periods.
Therefore, although we welcome articles on Shakespearean film adaptations, we also actively seek essays that go beyond such a focus to consider a wider range of adaptation practices and concerns. We look for essays that consider how we might think about adaptation practices in the early modern period, as well as essays that examine adaptations of non-Shakespearean texts. We invite contributors to consider the productive tension that early modern texts arouse in later adaptations, a tension often inspired by the differences between early modern and modern conventions of gender, race, class, and religion.
Articles of up to 6000 words are sought and, in accordance with the journal’s policy, all contributions will be peer-reviewed with at least two anonymous readers prior to being accepted. Shakespeare uses the MLA style as defined in the latest edition of the MLA Handbook. For more details, please see the “Instructions for Authors” section in www.tandf.co.uk/journals/shakespeare. This issue will be published in the first quarter of 2015, but if the issue is proofread and copy-ready earlier it may be published online earlier, due to the journal’s “Online First” policy. Please email completed articles and/or any queries to the guest editor, Jennifer Clement, by 15 September 2014.
