Shakespeare and the Origins of English

Abstract

This book is about what there was before the subject known as English existed, and about how that became English. The first half of the book deals principally with English as an academic discipline that emerges out of the study of rhetoric, while the second half is more concerned with the development of a national body of literature in the vernacular. The book is focused specifically on Shakespeare's role in the origins of the subject, and discusses the kinds of literary and educational practice that would have formed his experience and shaped his work. It traces the origins of English in the aspects of the educational regime that existed before English literature became an established part of the curriculum, and then presents Shakespeare as both a product of those disciplines and, in the 18th century, as an agent of their transformation into the subject that emerged as the modern study of English. This earlier historical period is also addressed from the perspective of the current state of English as a subject, and shows the affinity between rhetoric and modern concepts and practices, such as media studies, creative writing, and the online literary database. It is argued that the future for English lies in its reclaiming the creative, performative, and interactive territory originally covered by rhetoric and illustrated most powerfully by Shakespeare.