Languages have become more mobile than ever before, producing translations, transplantations, and cohabitations of all kinds. The early modern period also witnessed profound linguistic transformation, but in very different ways. Interlinguicity, Internationality, and Shakespeare undoes the illusion that Shakespeare wrote in what we now think of as English. In a series of essays approaching Shakespeare from unique and thought-provoking perspectives, contributors from history, performance criticism, and comparative literature look at "interlinguicity," the condition of being between languages, and "internationality," the condition of being between countries. Each essay focuses on local issues, such as community identification in the Netherlands of Shakespeare’s time and the appropriation of Shakespeare in German literature in the nineteenth century, to suggest that Shakespeare never wrote "in" English because English was not then, nor is it now, an intact, knowable system. Many languages existed in sixteenth-century London, and English did not have clear limits. Interlinguicity, Internationality, and Shakespeare helps to explain the hybridity that Shakespeare embraced in all his writing. Contributors include Paula Blank (College of William and Mary), Lauren Coker (Saint Louis University), Brian Gingrich (Princeton University), Alexa Huang (George Washington University), James Loehlin (University of Texas at Austin), Scott Newstok (Rhodes College), Patricia Parker (Stanford University), Elizabeth Pentland (York University), Philip Schwyzer (University of Exeter), Gary Waite (University of New Brunswick), and Robert N. Watson (University of California, Los Angeles)

Michael Saenger is professor of English at Southwestern University.

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“ ... Interlinguicity, Internationality, and Shakespeare focuses on the early modern era. Far from limiting the scope of the book, this focus actually opens up a wider range of “interlinguicities,” or relationships between languages. Highly recommended.”

“A somewhat unusual yet highly valuable contribution to both early modern and Shakespeare studies … that sheds light on the international linguistic resonances of the plays. It presents the more frequent perspectives of literary and theatrical analysis in

“The essays in this collection together produce a richer understanding of the multilingual and multicultural nature of Shakespeare’s own culture, as well as the global dialogue that his works not only illustrate, but also initiate.” Deanne Williams, Department of English, York University and author of The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare

“The field of linguistics offers many interesting insights into the language of Shakespeare, and this book proves not only that those insights are historically important, but also that they are being renewed and reimagined today in ways pertinent to perfo

“[Michael Saenger’s collection provides] a particularly useful set of meditations on the multilingual nature of Shakespeare's and his audience's 'English'” Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor of English, Ashoka University