In the year of the four hundredth anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare (1616-2016), the first issue of the journal Costellazioni will be devoted to Shakespearean drama, considered from a particular perspective that aims to analyze the role and function of the object in the texts, in stagings and in the critical reception of the works of the Elizabethan playwright. In addition to addressing the object in its most literal sense, as material thing, this issue of the journal intends to focus on the various typologies of objects related to Shakespeare’s plays: the stage object or property; costumes (both in their dramaturgical function and in their theatrical use); the body of the character / actor in its materiality; the image or iconographic representation as object; the objet d’art; the symbolic and / or metaphorical object; passive and active objects (objects that watch us); objects as modifiers of reality (dramatic / theatrical / metatheatrical); the representation of alimentary objects, such as food and kitchen utensils; the relationship between the object, the space of fiction and the performance space; the processes of valorization of objects; etc.
The editors of the volume welcome essays that analyze from a critical or historical viewpoint objects in Shakespeare in their diverse forms and manifestations. Possible theoretical and methodological approaches to this topic might include:
– Material cultures
– Semiotics of theatrical space
– History of performance
– Adaptation studies
– Literary and theatrical history
– History of critical reception
– Picture and image theory
– Theory of representation
– Psychoanalysis
– Etnoanthropology
– Food studies
– Costume studies, etc.
The proposals, in English (maximum 300 words), should be sent to the editors of the volume, Keir Elam and Fabio Liberto, and to the journal’s address, by 31 December 2015.