Shakespeare and Consciousness

Paul Budra is Professor of English at Simon Fraser University, Canada. He is the author of A Mirror for Magistrates and the de Casibus Tradition and co-editor of the essay collections: Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel, Soldier Talk: Oral Narratives of the Vietnam War, and From Text to Txting: New Media in the Classroom.Clifford Werier is Professor of English at Mount Royal University, Canada. He is co-editor of Much Ado About Nothing for the Internet Shakespeare Editions and has written three writing textbooks for Nelson, Canada.

• Introduction: Paul Budra and Clifford Werier.- I: Consciousness, Cognitive Science, and Character.- Consciousness and Cognition in Shakespeare and Beyond, Clifford Werier.- Shakespeare Studies and Consciousness, Edward Pechter.- Hamlet in the Bat Cave, Paul Budra.- II: Consciousness and Theatrical Practice.- King of Shadows: Early Modern Characters and Actors, Amy Cook.- The Distributed Consciousness of Shakespeare’s Theatre, Laurie Johnson.- Minds at work: writing, acting, watching, reading Hamlet, Ros King.- III: Consciousness and the Body.-“Being Unseminared”: Pleasure, Instruction, and Playing the Queen in Anthony and Cleopatra, Andrew Brown.- Bodies and Selves: Autoscopy, Out-of-Body Experiences, Mind-Wandering and Early Modern Consciousness, Jan Purnis.- Hamlet and Time-Consciousness: A Neurophenomenological Reading, Matthew Kibbee.- IV: Consciousness, Emotion, and Memory.- Shylock’s Shy Conscience: Consciousness, Power and Conversion in The Merchant of Venice, Tiffany Hoffman.- Forgetting Cleopatra, Elizabeth Hodgson.- Notes on the Contributors.

“Shakespeare and Consciousness, as the title suggests, explores issues pertaining to the works of William Shakespeare – his dramatic works, in this case – and consciousness, conceived in this study primarily through scientific theory. … this is definitely an interesting set of studies and there is much that can be drawn from it by those interested in applying theories of consciousness and cognitive science to literature, and those looking to embrace an alternative approach in considering Shakespeare’s plays.” (Charlotte Fiehn, The British Society for Literature and Science, bsls.ac.uk, November, 2017)