Shakespeare on the Ecological Surface

Liz Oakley-Brown is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University, UK. Her publications include The Rituals and Rhetoric of Queenship: Medieval to Early Modern (co-edited with Louise J. Wilkinson; 2009), Shakespeare and the Translation of Identity in Early Modern England (2011) and Twelfth Night: A Critical Reader (co-edited with Alison Findlay; 2014).

• 1. Slick: Art for What’s Sake? 2. Smoke: London’s Burning 3. Sky: Unfirming the Firmament 4. Steam: Under Pressure 5. Soil: Down to Earth 6. Slime: Sensory Plays 7. Snail: Finding Our Place 8. Silk: Textile Production 9. Skin: Curating Complexion 10. Stage: Disposable Globes

‘It carries a political appeal to “act” as if “our collective non-human and human existence depend[ed] upon it”. For taking the discipline of ecocriticism in a new direction, its bravery and radicalism should be welcomed.’ Alice Leonard, TLS'The book advances an original and canny argument that the absence of the word surface from Shakespeare’s lexicon constitutes negative evidence that he and his culture had a much more immersive, inter-connected understanding of the world that did not draw such sharp divides– physical or taxonomic–between things. . . . [It] makes an important contribution to ecocriticism and Shakespeare Studies, while illustrating how eco-theory might influence theatre practitioners and vice-versa. . . . Since Oakley-Brown spends many sentences thanking the critics who have taught her to see Shakespeare and the world anew, it seems only fitting that a reviewer return the favour and thank the author for spotlighting the surfaces of Shakespeare’s world, revealing how much can still be glimpsed in them and through them if we look closely enough and through the eyes of such a keen-sighted guide' Todd Borlik, Shakespeare‘Shakespeare on the Ecological Surface is a handy and absorbing study. As well as early modern ecocritics, the book will be useful to anyone working in the wider fields of surface studies or geo-humoralism. As an invitation to shift perceptions on the individual ‘surfaces’ described in the book, both in Shakespeare’s plays and in the modern experience, the book undoubtedly succeeds. The research opens up many potential further avenues of exploration.’ Elizabeth Freestone, Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism‘The strengths of Oakley-Brown’s project are several. . . . [Oakley-Brown’s] brand of presentism demonstrates that Shakespearean scholarship can change as rapidly as our technology, our pathogens, and our ecology during times of environmental and anthropogenic crises. The book is a powerful reminder of how Covid-19 has shaped a cultural and critical landscape full of surfaces that must be acknowledged, wiped off, bleached, breathed on, breathed through, and studied. As a timely product of the pandemic, her book still manages to provide a strong defence of the humanities in the fight for climate justice’. Will Steffen, Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies‘Oakley-Brown writes at the intersection of environmental studies, medical humanities, object studies, and social activism, a rich mix of perspectives that is sustained through ten short chapters, each one on a single example of how a specific kind of surface can reveal the social, political, and phenomenological influences and ideas at work in Shakespeare’s world and ours. . . . I could see assigning chapters from this volume to both undergraduate and graduate students for different uses—as models of scholarly “digestion,” bringing together scads of sources to fashion an essay; or as examples of clear non-jargony but still sophisticated writing. The best model the book contributes to the field is the way it opens up unexpected pathways to think in new ways about Shakespeare and our own world. . . . Shakespeare on the Ecological Surface is an invitation, not a set of magisterial conclusions: it wants us to take up its work and respond, and to join in its project—to become part of its collective struggle to represent and protect the planet, surface and depth alike.’ Karen Raber, Shakespeare Studies: Volume 53