This is a comprehensive critical analysis of the most important Shakespearean critics, editors, actors and directors. This volume focuses on Shakespeare's reception by the modern intellectuals. "Great Shakespeareans" offers a systematic account of those figures who have had the greatest influence on the interpretation, understanding and cultural reception of Shakespeare, both nationally and internationally. In this volume, leading scholars assess the contribution of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud to the afterlife and reception of Shakespeare and his plays. Each substantial contribution assesses the double impact of Shakespeare on the figure covered and of the figure on the understanding, interpretation and appreciation of Shakespeare, provides a sketch of their subject's intellectual and professional biography and an account of the wider cultural context, including comparison with other figures or works within the same field.

Author Biography

David Hillman is a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, UK. His books include Shakespeare's Entrails: Belief, Scepticism and the Interior of the Body and Authority and Representation in Early Modern Discourse (editor). Jean Howard is George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, USA. Her many books include Marxist Shakespeares (edited with Scott Shershow, 2000) and four Companions to Shakespeare (edited with Richard Dutton, 2001). She is co-editor of The Norton Shakespeare and General Editor of the Bedford Contextual Editions of Shakespeare. From 1999-2000 she was President of the Shakespeare Association of America. Crystal Bartolovich is Associate Professor in the English Department at Syracuse University, USA.