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Title:
"Contracted Time: Apocalypse and Identity in The Merchant of Venice
Author:
Simpson, Lucas.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 4 (2024): 291–311.
Annotation:

Reads allusions to the "second Daniel" in Merchant of Venice as key to "the play's comedic-apocalyptic form," which "stages conventional comic types alongside theological questions." Suggests that Merchant of Venice does not portray "Christian transcendence of rivalry and difference," but rather, an economic exchange where "Shylock and Jessica are exchanged into gold."

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Title:
"Yorick's Skull and the Farting Irishwomen: Folkloric Migrations in Late Medieval Literature"
Author:
Lowe, Dunstan.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 4 (2024): 274–90.
Annotation:

Identifies earlier instance of Hamlet's gravedigger scene with Yorick's skull in "a medieval anecdote about an Irishman named Clefsan, in the Old Norse text Konungs skuggsjá (The King's Mirror)." Traces Clefsan's story, about a jester's skull that causes those who look into its mouth to laugh, through late medieval folklores.

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Title:
"The Power of 0: Computing and Modeling Silence in Shakespeare's Drama" 
Author:
Sperrazza, Whitney.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 3 (2024): 229–55.
Annotation:

Considers how to count and measure Isabella's words and silences in Measure for Measure, offering visualizations of the play's "speech distribution." Suggests that Measure for Measure presents a "faulty computational logic" that "invites quantitative thinking." Argues for importance of "bringing our focus to process" (emphasis in the original) and seeking "the things that are missing, and the moments of glitch" in computational literary studies. 

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Title:
"Forked Animals: King Lear's Cornuted Anthropology"
Author:
Lewis, Alex.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 3 (2024): 202–228.
Annotation:

Argues that Lear's "forked animal" is a reference to cuckoldry that is not comic but tragic. Suggests that Shakespeare's "forked animal" defines "potentially all mankind" and presents a "cuckolded ... anthropology" tainted by "bad particulars such as patriarchy, speciesism, and class."

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Title:
"Praising the Negative: Value, Quantity, and the Nature of 'No' in Shakespeare's Sonnets"
Author:
Netzley, Ryan.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 3 (2024): 179–201.
Annotation:

By reading instances of "no," shows how Shakespeare's sonnets and sonnet tradition more broadly insist "on its own ineffectuality, failure, and redundancy" as well as "its own negativity."

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Title:
"'Ninny's Tomb' in A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Author:
Bergeron, David M..
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 2 (2024): 144–52.
Annotation:

Argues that "Ninny's tomb" and "Ninus' tomb" in Midsummer Night's Dream are allusions to St. Ninian, one of the patron saints of Scotland, known for "healing and liberation." Traces historical references to Ninian's tomb and suggests that the Athenian woods is also a place of healing and liberation.

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Title:
"Crying 'Hem' on Shakespeare's Stage"
Author:
Bishop, Tom.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 2 (2024): 137–43.
Annotation:

Revisits Rosalind's wish that she "could cry 'hem' and have" Orlando, pointing out that 'hem' was used to get a prostitute's attention on the street as well as being a Latin interjection.

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Title:
"Of Scamels and Such"
Author:
Abrams, Rick.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2024
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 75, no. 1 (2024): 26–43.
Annotation:

Delineates how past editors have handled textual crux of "scamels" in Tempest. Proposes that Caliban's "scamels" is a misprinting of "sea owls." Suggests that Caliban's discussion of "sea owls" "opens paths of inquiry into the dramatist’s ecological conscience" and the play's themes of New World voyages.

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Title:
"On Shakespeare's Legacy, Critical Race, and Collective Futures"
Author:
Park, Jennifer.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2023
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 74, no. 3 (2023): 264–80.
Annotation:

Considers Shakespeare's legacy "as whiteness, as property, as inheritance," drawing on multiple valences of "legacy" including "legacy admission" in "college slang." Emphasizes importance of critical race studies to future of Shakespeare studies. Explores Cleopatra's anxieties about her legacy.

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Title:
"Books of the Unlearned: Shakespearean Iconicity and Black Atlantic Critique"
Author:
Grier, Miles P..
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2023
Publication Information:
Shakespeare Quarterly 74, no. 3 (2023): 247–63.
Annotation:

Suggests that Bardolatry "has brought about a reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics" because of "a shared, underlying faith in white nationalism." Contrasts iconoclasm of Shakespeare's day with today's culture wars, where conservatives are invested in Shakespeare and the first folio as founding icons. Underscores importance of turning to Black Atlantic writers and thinkers.

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