Book review: Smith, E. (2020) This Is Shakespeare. The most erotic comedy, the most dramatic tragedy, men burned by shame, cardboard villains, feminists, show business stars and more (Translated from English by M.G. Sukhotina. Moscow: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber)

Abstract

Modern literary criticism offers the reader a whole sphere of Shakespearean studies based on the ideas of historical poetics. In accordance with the latter, we understand the images and problems of dramas, comedies and tragedies of the great English playwright in the key of romantic, symbolist, psychoanalytic, and other interpretations. Emma Smith offers a relevant reading of Shakespeare’s texts, based on theatrical productions and film adaptations of his works in the 20th and 21st centuries. The actualization of the Shakespearean heritage is being implemented in modern theater and cinema as an attempt to bring the complex and diverse content of the writer’s tragedies and comedies closer to mass culture. As a result, there appears the effect of inversion, of a break-off with the deep philosophical problems of the Shakespeare theater. The chapters of the book somehow address the problem of interpretation -contemporary with Shakespeare and with our time. The author’s arsenal includes psychology and psychoanalysis, cultural and sociological approaches, which are combined with the actual philological analysis of plays. However, the book discusses the evolution of themes and genres the least. The works chosen for the analysis are well known to readers and experts. The book includes 20 chapters, each dedicated to one play. We stress that, in the educational process, this structure is very convenient because it draws one’s attention to the work as much as possible and allows determining one’s own perception, consent or disagreement with the author of the book. This feature has been tested in practical work with students in classes on Shakespeare’s works. We analyze all the interpretations of Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies, both modern and historical, given in Smith’s book. The author of the book is interested, first of all, in topical approaches to understanding the plays of the English playwright, this is dictated by the very aim of the study - to interest the reader and show Shakespeare as our contemporary. The author of the book speaks a modern language with her reader, relying on the experience of attracting both wide readers and experts to reading Shakespeare’s works. Contribution of the authors: the authors contributed equally to this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.