Shakespeare, the Renaissance and Empire presents Shakespeare as both a local and global writer, investigating Shakespeare’s trans-cultural writing through the interrelations and interactions of binaries including theory and practice, past and present, aesthetics and ethics, freedom and tyranny, republic and empire, empires and colonies, poetry and history, rhetoric and poetics, England and America, and England and Asia. The book breaks away from traditional western-centric analysis to present a universal Shakespeare, exposing readers to the relevance and significance of Shakespeare within their local contexts and cultures. This text aims to present a global Shakespeare, utilizing a dual perspective or dialectical presentation, mainly centred on questions of (1) how Shakespeare can be viewed as both an English writer and a world writer; (2) how language operates across genres and kinds of discourse; and (3) how Shakespeare helps to articulate a poetics of both texts (literature) and contexts (cultures). The book’s originality lies in its articulation of the importance and value of Shakespeare in the emerging landscape of global culture.

Jonathan Locke Hart received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in English and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Hart is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and is Chair Professor of the School of Translation Studies, Shandong University. He is also Fellow, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria College, University of Toronto; Associate, Harvard University Herbaria; and Life Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. In recent years, he was Core Faculty, Comparative Literature, Western University, and Chair Professor of the School of Foreign Languages and Director of the Centre for Creative Writing, Literary Culture and Translation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has written over twenty books and edited others and contributed book chapters. A winner of many international awards, including two Fulbrights to Harvard, and having served on national and international committees, including Fulbright and Killam, he has written over 100 articles and essays and has held visiting appointments at Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, the Sorbonne-Nouvelle (Paris III), Leiden, UC Irvine and elsewhere and has given classes, talks, readings and lectures internationally.