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Considers familial relationships in Shakespeare's revenge tragedies, asserting that the violent disruption of these relationships serves as an extension and excess of normative familial emotions related to the stressors of inheritance, economics, and politics.

Explores the union of poetry and drama in Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis by examining textual bodies of the characters and how they are read or misread by an audience. Further argues that because of the union of poetry and drama, Shakespeare "developed a language that interrogates the capacities of representation as well as its limits."

Argues that in Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, "Shakespeare weaves his rhetorical engagement with Ovid with a sexual narrative to 'disorient' his readership, in the process critically re-orienting his own relationship with Ovid."

Discusses classical sources and Elizabeth's influence in Rape of Lucrece and argues that "[b]y reimagining the role of shame and related passions [of Tarquin, Lucrece, and Brutus] in the Lucrece story, Shakespeare challenges traditional gender and social roles and associated conceptions of proper ethical and political action."

Establishes that instructors should "examin[e] a small handful of textual dilemmas" when teaching undergraduates Shakespeare's sonnets to illustrate how editors shape texts. Suggests Sonnets 16, 23, and 147 as key sonnets for an 80-90 minute activity and provides explanations of the textual cruxes and how these cruxes may be used in this activity.

Discusses how rhyme in Shakespeare's sonnets functions as a "binding agent" of the quatrain, the sonnet itself, and the sonnet sequence. Emphasizes how rhymes impact musicality, pleasure, and temporality.

Explores the possible identities of the speaker and the audience, as well as their relationship, in the sonnets. Concludes that both speaker and the individuals he is directly addressing are wearing masks (hence the apparent fluidity in gender between those addressed to young man and dark lady)and act as if they are players on a stage. Further asserts that the relationship between speaker and listener is part of a "servant-master" power dynamic wherein the "speaking persona speaks from a position of singularity and seeks a reciprocal recognition of uniqueness from the other person."

Considers managerial and artistic aspects of six non-profit Shakespeare theatrical companies (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare & Company, Shakespeare's Globe, and American Shakespeare Center) from 1935 to 2012, finding that the revitalization of these plays led to integration of the audience, loyal actors, and innovation in casting, stagecraft, and play development.

Examines the sonnets by considering the visual design of "Elizabethan domestic architecture" and how it is translated through use of repetition as poetic ornamentation. Argues that "repetition illuminates anew the virtuosity with which Shakespeare exploits the possibilities of poetic artifice, helps to contextualize artistically his impulse to elaboration, and discloses his mixed attitude towards ornament itself."

Questions the assumptions of female sexual desire surrounding the dark lady of Shakespeare's sonnets and the fallen woman in "A Lover's Complaint." Asserts that "the stigma attached to female promiscuity is not only prohibitive but also productive. And what it produces may be the possibility of hierarchy, dominance, and inequality that, for the speaker of the Sonnets at least, are precisely what make men men, women women, and sex sexy."