Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism ed. by Joseph M. Ortiz (review)

To claim that William Shakespeare is one of the most influential authors in literary history is almost a moot point. The Bard has been read worldwide for centuries, influencing many aspects of the arts and culture. Countless critical editions and essays have been published on his works, providing in-depth and fascinating critiques of his contributions to the English canon and the ways he has influenced culture as a whole. This text edited by Joseph M. Ortiz is no exception. Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism is a critical collection of essays which, in short, discuss the influence Shakespeare had on Romantic art, literature, culture, and society. These articles do much more than this, though. The reader does not just get a quick snapshot of how Shakespeare affected one aspect of culture but rather how that connection contributed to the greater Romantic Movement. Spanning across the whole of the time period, several Western nations, and disciplines, these articles weave a greater cultural understanding of what it meant to truly embrace the Bard as a grand contributor to Romanticism.

The most impressive aspect of this collection is the breadth of culture the articles cover. Chapters range from the influence of Shakespeare on Romantic literature such as Wordsworth, Smith, and Dickenson, to the reinterpretation of his dramatic works for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century audiences, to social understandings of gender and history through the staging of his plays. Not only does the reader understand how Shakespeare influenced these aspects but she or he is also provided with an understanding of what culture was during the Romantic era. A strong emphasis is placed on the aesthetic nature of Shakespeare’s influence as well as the relationship between the performance and poetics of his plays. On the whole, these articles provide a cumulative understanding of Romantic culture and how culture in general is understood.

This is not to say, of course, that each essay could not stand on its own. Rather, each chapter provides its own unique take on the titular subject. Scholars in a multitude of disciplines could find use in at least one of the essays within the text. Ortiz categorizes the twelve chapters provided into four sections, presenting a different aspect of Romantic culture in each. Within these sections, the chapters illustrate new ideas about a diverse range of cultural artifacts and how Shakespeare’s influence can be read into them. For instance, several of the essays discuss the use of Shakespeare in a manner to create authority for the artist, in particular female artists. Essays do not just reference the influences of Shakespeare on Romantic authors and works, but rather how these influences translate into a culture that could be defined as Romantic. The most appropriate way to describe the presentation is from Ann R. Hawkins’s chapter, “Reconstructing the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery.” Although referencing Boydell’s Shakespearean art pieces, Ortiz’s collection, too, can be seen “as a series of ‘galleries,’ of distinct moments in a complicated cycle of Shakespearean representation and consumption in the Romantic era” (Hawkins 210).

The only flaws that can be found when considering this collection are the diversity of the articles in regards to Romantic society and the display of Romanticism as a whole, all-encompassing Western culture. The articles, as stated previously, provide an excellent understanding of the culture but only seem to present certain aspects of society, such as gender constructions and issues. The topic of socio-economics is hinted occasionally throughout but does not have a major role in the collection, save for a part in the final essay “A Written Warning” by Leigh Wetherall-Dickson. The collection also appears to present Romantic culture as a wide-sweeping, general concept. However, the various countries participating in the Romantic movement each had their own cultural identities and variations of Romanticism. If we are to understand Shakespeare’s influence on Romantic culture without a specific context and instead look at Romanticism strictly from an aesthetic point...