Shakespeare’s works occupy a prismatic and complex position in world culture: they straddle both the high and the low, the national and the foreign, literature and theatre. The Second World War presents a fascinating case study of this phenomenon: most, if not all, of its combatants have laid claim to Shakespeare and have called upon his work to convey their society’s self-image.

In wartime, such claims frequently brought to the fore a crisis of cultural identity and of competing ownership of this ‘universal’ author. Despite this, the role of Shakespeare during the Second World War has not yet been examined or documented in any depth. Shakespeare and the Second World War provides the first sustained international, collaborative incursion into this terrain. The essays demonstrate how the wide variety of ways in which Shakespeare has been recycled, reviewed, and reinterpreted from 1939–1945 are both illuminated by and continue to illuminate the War today.

Irena R. Makaryk is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa.

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Marissa McHugh is an doctoral candidate in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa.

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‘One of those rare books that merges both literature and history in equal proportion, Shakespeare and the Second World War is a rich mine of information to scholars, writers, historians, literary aficionados, and all general lovers of knowledge.’

Journal of Military and Strategic Studies vol 15:03:2014

‘Shakespeare and the Second World War is consistently fascinating and wide-ranging in scope.’

Studies in English Language vol 53:02:2013