Shakespeare and the Shape of Words

Investigating the cultural, social, and lexical properties of words in Shakespeare, this collection sheds new light on his verbal artistry.

Investigating the cultural, social, and lexical properties of words in the Shakespearean canon, this collection builds upon a lively field of enquiry into Shakespeare's verbal artistry, examining his imaginative use of individual words and their parts to create character, advance plot, and comment on theatrical, social, and political concerns.Expanding our understanding of the moments which define Shakespeare's practice, this collection richly combines literary studies with analyses based on new advances in computational scholarship. Ranging widely across Shakespeare's dramatic writings, it invites us to pay close critical attention to the points at which words are shaped into something new or surprising. Bringing together a distinguished team of international scholars, the chapters show that Shakespeare's creative morphology is also an act of collective meaning-making, where what might be shaped through words – their creative potential – is transformed into something 'strange and admirable'.