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"Examines references to pregnancy in Hamlet as taking part in a long-running literary conversation about tragedy, affect, and the female body" and "argues that Hamlet's metatheatrical meditations on tragedy confront an inherited understanding of the pregnant body's susceptibility to passionate emotion, and reformulate this model in order to imagine how a male tragic protagonist might effectively move audiences."

Focuses on Taming of the Shrew to consider how representations of feasting and hunger in Shakespeare's comedies stimulate the audience's appetite, arguing that "inducing hunger serves both a practical and a literary purpose: it encourages sales of playhouse refreshments, while also intensifying audience empathy."

Draws on metaphors in All's Well That Ends Well, Henry VIII, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Tempest to "consider . . . the theoretical difficulties posed by applause in general both today and in Shakespeare's England, and . . . advance two specific historicizing claims about early modern audience applause: one to do with its loudness, the other to do with the frequency of its occurrence."

Examines how early modern authors (including Shakespeare) used maritime religious imagery to confront theological questions during a period of nascent religious reform. Argues that sea imagery reveals a new skepticism against the medieval church and its vision of a organized universe.

"Proposes an historically viable hermeneutics of catharsis that seeks to account for at least some of Shakespeare's emotional impact on his audiences," focusing on the relationship between literature and purgation.

Uses Rape of Lucrece and King Lear to explore the role of pain in Shakespeare's works, demonstrating his "deep and developing skepticism about the salvific and redemptive aspects of pain" and exploring "his careful analysis of just what it means ethically to experience pain, to observe the pain of others, and to cause the pain of others." Includes discussion of Lucrece and King Lear.

Focuses on Shakespeare's history plays set between 1399 and 1485 (Richard II, 1 and 2 Henry IV, Henry V, 1, 2, and 3 Henry VI, and Richard III), tracing how they "recover thematic unities from [Raphael Holinshed's] Chronicles" and exploring "Shakespeare's rearticulation of the historical role of the commons in Holinshed's English medieval history, and especially how popular displeasure and political critique are expressed."

Demonstrates the ways in which Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, with its mixture of history and romance, influenced King Lear and Cymbeline. Argues that these two plays, traditionally classified among the romances and tragedies, should be understood as histories.

Discusses "the physical makeup of the printed Shakespeare text, how it changes, and the implications of those changes," focusing on the size of Shakespeare texts over time and how size relates to readers' access to these works.

Analyzes the ways in which the Shakespeare publishing business has changed between 1980 and the present, focusing on "authors; the business of publishing editions of Shakespeare's works; and how Shakespeare publishing has been affected by recent developments in technology."