Emma Smith on Shakespeare

Quote of the month: “When they were first printed, Shakespeare’s plays had no character lists or dramatise personae as we are now used to in modern editions. There was no obvious sense in which the persons of the play pre-existed the words they speak in it. We can see dramatic characters in this way as a product of language which, strangely, they seem themselves also to produce. Rather than articulating their own words, they are articulated by them.” (Emma Smith’s The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare)

book cast lists Emma Smith language playwriting post-structuralism Shakespeare William Shakespeare words