"This Blessed Plot": An Ecocritical Approach to Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy

This research project aims at bringing to light the non-human dimension in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy, i.e., Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV and Henry V. In the context of the military confrontations that preceded the Wars of the Roses, the disruption of human relationships bears an impact on the land and the non-human cosmos in general. Through his literary craft and thorough understanding of human and non-human nature, Shakespeare reveals an intricate network of relationships, which, even when broken, can be mended. My project is guided by a presentist understanding of literature. Studying the relationship between the human and the non-human in Shakespeare’s histories can also inform our own relationship with the land we inhabit and our mutual interdependence. Matter and spirit are integrated in this analysis and inspiration is drawn from Pope Francis’ so-called green encyclical <em>Laudato Si,</em> which invites us to see the earth as our common home and, consequently, exhorts us to be responsible and caring.

Shakespeare and the new discourses of television: quality, aesthetics, and The Hollow Crown

This article discusses The Hollow Crown (2012, 2016) adaptations of William Shakespeare’s histories in the light of broader changes that have overtaken television. Contextualising the series in terms of technical, industrial, cultural, and critical transformations, the article highlights the Shakespearean significance of debates in television studies around quality, complexity, and aesthetics. To illustrate this thesis, the article analyses the opening of Richard II (dir. Rupert Goold, 2012), unpacking the ways in which the first 60 seconds merge markers of prestige with a distinctive cinematic style and a dense imagistic and acoustic register in order to achieve narrative intricacy and poetic responsiveness.

Speculum Speculorum: Kingship and Selfhood in Shakespeare’s King Richard II

"Speculum Speculorum: Kingship and Selfhood in Shakespeare’s King Richard II. Starting from the premise that the concept of the King’s Two Bodies generates the separation between two selves within the nature of a king, I argue that the medieval practice of the speculum principis – the mirror of the perfect prince – plays an important part in the process of fashioning the kingly stance. Given that, in the Christian tradition, the mirror stands on the polarized ground between resemblance to the divine and self-idolatry, the reflection of the self is always deceitful. Two Shakespearean plays will serve for the analysis of the link between mirrors and kings: Richard II and Richard III. In Richard II, Shakespeare creates a climactic scene in which, after having relinquished his crown to Bolingbroke, the newly deposed king demands a looking-glass to identify the remaining aspects of his former self. The article reads the reversal of the sanctified ceremonial coronation, the substitution of investiture by divestiture as a demonic rite of reciting Scripture passages backwards. This act activates the most dramatic effects, transforming Richard’s looking-glass into what Ernst Kantorowicz famously calls a “magic-mirror.” The ambivalence of the mirror is manipulated by Shakespeare in order to unveil Richard’s two-fold persona. The dissolution of kingship leaves behind a fragmented selfhood that can no longer ensure Richard’s survival, reducing him to nothing. Keywords: mirror, kingship, selfhood, crown, deposition, Richard II "