James Siemon

James Siemon has concentrated his research, teaching and publication on the literature of early modern England, with particular focus on drama, especially by Shakespeare. He has written two books on Shakespeare and has edited plays by Shakespeare (Richard III) and Christopher Marlowe (The Jew of Malta). He has articles and essays on various aspects of Renaissance literature and culture, and is currently editing Julius Caesar for the Norton Complete Works. He is interested in social history and theory, and especially in the socio-linguistic interaction between early modern literature and practical, everyday discourse. He is working on two book-length projects that bring together close examinations of ordinary utterances (as found in letters, depositions, libels, reports of civic meetings, etc.) with explorations in the language of the early modern stage. One project re-visits Raymond Williams’ history of cultural “key words” to analyze social tensions that would have accompanied terms that might seem familiar today, such as “gentle” or “credit,” for example, but that were quite differently used by earlier speakers. The other considers the complex representations of hierarchy and social distinction in Shakespeare and his contemporaries, inspired by some simple questions: how did English audiences and readers recognize and express rank and standing onstage and off? How did they know when one should put on or take off a hat, whether to walk to the right or left, when to speak first or only answer when addressed, when to look others in the eye or lower their gaze, where to take a seat at table or when to use formal or informal pronouns? Students in his classes should expect to consider similar questions of early modern micropolitics in their literary, theatrical and practical embodiments.