Catherine Belsey treats Shakespeare's plays as the location of cultural history rather than as isolated works of art, and analyzes visual and written material side by side, to explore the emergence of family values.
Helen Cooper's unique study examines how continuations of medieval culture into the early modern period, forged Shakespeare's development as a dramatist and poet.
This groundbreaking work, first published in 2005, reveals exactly how Shakespeare was influenced by contemporary strands in political thought that were critical of the English crown and constitution.