Much Ado about Nothing and the New Awareness

The essays in this volume rethink Much Ado About Nothing from the standpoint of the New Awareness. Scholars today are by necessity both the products and the producers of this awareness. Moreover, the essays in this collection touch upon problems that are germane to the political climate today and similar to the concerns reflected in this play. Three essays discuss epistemology and determining real information from its simulation. Other essays concern issues that are central to the #MeToo Movement, including rape culture and the credibility of women. Aside from the immediate textual and historical context, other essays address issues of race and gender in adaptations and theatrical productions, especially in young-adult prose adaptations of the play and in theater’s practice of inclusive and race-conscious staging.

Jim Casey is an independent scholar based in the USA. He has retired from teaching but is still active in the field, and has over thirty peer-reviewed publications, including an edition of Shakespeare and Fletcher's The Two Noble Kinsmen and the collection Shakespeare/Not Shakespeare (2017). He is a Fulbright Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Grant recipient, and past President of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

Anthony Guy Patricia is Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Humanities at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia, USA.

Kelsey Ridge is an Adjunct Professor in Literature at Alvernia University, USA.

Philip Goldfarb Styrt is Assistant Professor of English at St. Ambrose University, USA.