Pericles's Deep Ecology

The wonderful subsea window of Shakespeare and George Wilkins's Pericles (III.i.55–63) allows us to witness multispecies play at play in multisensorial ways. Octopoid in nature and eco-materialist in depth and breadth, the protagonist's benthic curiosity dissolves ontological chasms between human and nonhuman while recognizing the real risks of oceanic immersion that bodies face. A truly deep ecology such as this helpfully entangles us, as readers and audience members, with waters Shakespearean as well as present day. Just as Pericles speculates upon what is happening—and will happen—in the water, his subaqueous vision invites us to deepen our own maritime imaginations.