Why Shakespeare?

In this exciting new introduction to Shakespeare, Catherine Belsey takes traditional tales as a starting point to argue against the cultural materialists who claim Shakespeare's iconic status is no more than an accident of history.

Each chapter shows how one of Shakespeare's best-known plays retells with a difference stories familiar both then and now.

Belsey goes on to put forward new readings, teasing out the enigmas that constitute these texts and the interpretations they have inspired.