Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a ‘bible’ for scholars, voted a top 10 book of the 20th century. It also fascinated general readers, as a guide to social manners.
The scene is set for the feast at Sicilia in The Globe’s production of The Winter’s Tale.
Tristram Kenton
Shakespeare’s Conrad is now an ambitious ‘story producer’. With an eye over all the ‘Nothing Island’ action, he seeds rumours that bloom into reality TV gold.
A calf-bound 1623 copy of the First Folio edition of William Shakespeare’s plays.
Matt Dunham/AP
In the First Folio, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays were published for the first time. With its appeals to patronage and commerce, and praise of his wit, this iconic book preserved the playwright’s genius.
Predictions of the death of romantic comedy have been repeated over time. But it has been with us since before Shakespeare and is still very much alive and in constant transformation.
Nurses striking in the winter of 2022 and 2023.
PA Images/Alamy
Shakespeare often portrayed crises of legitimacy and reflected on the politics of his day but the Tories might not fare so well in a modern production.
The Ngakau Toa theatre company at the Globe to Globe international Shakespeare theatre festival in London, 2012.
Getty Images
Behind the recent row over money for a school Shakespeare festival lies the bigger problem of theatre funding in general. Establishing a genuine national theatre could be the solution.
Richard III’s story still has the power to fascinate and divide.
Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy
Stephen Frears’ film is adding to the furore surrounding Richard III, England’s most controversial king. New research examines what prompts such ferocious debate.
In what’s called ‘benign masochism,’ some people find the feeling of disgust pleasurable.
Ocskaymark/iStock via Getty Images.
Andrew Newman, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
An English professor takes a critical look at why today’s students are assigned the same books that were assigned decades ago – and why American school curricula are so difficult to change.