Confronted with the formidable and at times daunting mass of materials on Shakespeare, where does the beginning student - or even a seasoned one - turn for guidance? Answering that question remains the central aim of this guide. Revised and updated, this edition contains concise analyses of more than 100 new books on Shakespeare published since the 1987 edition. It has an expanded section on the history plays and provides separate categories for film and television and for culture studies, focusing upon seasonal festivities, hospitality, courtship rituals, sexuality and other Renaissance social practices. It provides an overview of the development and present state of Shakespeare scholarship and its extraordinary diverse critical approaches - including sections on feminism and gender studies, Shakespeare's Romances, post-structuralism and the new historicism - as well as summaries and evaluations of bibliographies, periodicals, monographs and reference books. For beginning and advanced students alike, the guide offers practical advice for doing research and writing critical papers on Shakespeare - including how to select and develop topics, prepare a working bibliography and outline, take notes, avoid plagiarism and use appropriate documentation following the MLA system. Students should find instructive the model research paper, which provides an easy-to-understand example.

This updated edition should be a welcome addition to the research shelf of anyone interested in Shakespeare. Particularly useful are its pithy introductions and bibliographies on various critical approaches. David Bevington, 1995 1996 president, Shakespeare Association of America and editor of Complete Works of Shakespeare

Provides a handy, compact map to the changing and contested field of Shakespeare studies. Bruce R. Smith, 1994 1995 president, Shakespeare Association of America and author of Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare's England: A Cultural Poetics

Confronted with the rapidly proliferating array of scholarship and criticism on Shakespeare and related subjects, students and teachers alike will appreciate this updated edition of Bergeron and de Sousa s useful, clear, and well-organized survey. Phyllis Rackin, 1993 1994 president, Shakespeare Association of America and author of Stages of History: Shakespeare's English Chronicles

A classic in the field; in fact, it has the field to itself. Every scholar in Shakespeare studies knows about this volume. William Carroll, author of The Metamorphoses of Shakespearean Comedy

A successful surveillance that lays out the geography, the battle camps, and the scholarly hermitages of Shakespeare criticism. Useful to anyone beginning serious study of Shakespeare. Shakespeare Quarterly