John Drakakis

Synopsis: Podcast series in which Dr Neema Parvini, author of Shakespeare’s History Plays: Rethinking Historicism and Shakespeare and Contemporary Theory: New Historicism and Cultural Materialism, interviews Shakespeare scholars and literary theorists from around the world in a bid to gain an understanding of current thinking in Shakespeare studies and in literary criticism more generally.

In this edition Parvini talks to John Drakakis. Topics include: the professionalisation of the discipline and its impact on scholarship; what was ‘new’ about new historicism?; understanding the roots of cultural materialism and its differences from new historicism; differences between left-wing criticism at Sussex and at Cardiff; influences beyond Althusser and Foucault: Antonio Gramsci, Raymond Williams, Fredric Jameson, Pierre Macherey; the British New Left; the old liberal humanists: Edward Pechter, Richard Levin and Graham Bradshaw; did Shakespeare have ‘a mind which could think otherwise’?; base and superstructure; and the current state of play.
Series: Shakespeare and Contemporary Theory
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Audio
Year of release: 2013
Duration: 74 mins

This record has been viewed 737 times.