Institutions of the Text

Renaissance Drama, an annual and interdisciplinary publication, is devoted to drama and performance as a central feature of Renaissance culture. The essays in each volume explore traditional canons of drama, the significance of performance (broadly construed) to early modern culture, and the impact of new forms of interpretation on the study of Renaissance plays, theater, and performance.

Volume 30, Institutions of the Text, includes essays that examine playtexts in their relationship to a structure or structures shaping early modern culture: the printing industry, the marketplace of texts and of fashions, theatrical companies, manuscript culture and circulation, authorship, the family and paternity. Topics include Henry V and testicular masculinity, two essays on The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare's Sir John Oldcastle, and Shakespeare's commerciality.