The legacy of the Shakespearean plays has been the subject of much scholarly analysis over the centuries. Indeed, so powerful are Shakespearean creations that they not only dominate English literature and English studies, but also have successfully transcended the bounds of culture. Shakespeare’s “divine worth” has proven to be so overpowering that, “like the sun it burns while generations pass”. Shakespeare continues to speak to us, generation after generation, throughout the countries and cultures of the world. His renditions are still so contemporary, so very modern, posing fundamental questions that have become particularly acute in the contemporary era. Heralding a celebration of the human spirit, triumphant even when it is vanquished, Shakespeare’s plays probe and inquire into the intractable issues of the self and the other, the individual and the community, and the very purpose of life. Rarely if ever, is one of his many plays not being performed somewhere in the world, and similarly rare is the tertiary English literature scholar and teacher who has not examined his work at length. His plays are seen, read, and studied across the globe as models of high culture and timeless art.
Shakespeare: A Reappraisal, in 2 Volumes, is a humble effort to provide an overview of the genres on the Elizabethan stage, and casts a provocative look at a vast range of Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, and tragedies. In his Foreword for the book, Prof. Amitava Roy, President, Shakespeare Society of Eastern India, and former Shakespeare Professor of English and Drama, Rabindra Bharati University, remarks, “The Editors, Dr. Sunita Sinha and Carole Rozzonelli, have brought together academics, theatre experts and scholars of high renown from all across the globe”. The anthology offers a collection of well researched papers which will undoubtedly prove valuable to the students, researchers and scholars of English literature.
Sunita Sinha, a gold medalist from Patna University, Bihar, is an Associate Professor and has been teaching English at Women’s College, Samastipur, L.N. Mithila University, (Darbhanga), Bihar. She has authored three books, Graham Greene: A Study of His Major Novels; Post-Colonial Women Writers: New Perspectives; and Twentieth Century Literature: Emerging Trends, which have been published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd. New Delhi. She has also edited twelve books: New Urges in Post-Colonial Literature: Widening Horizons; Reconceiving Post Colonialism: Visions and Revisions; Postcolonial Imaginings: Fissions and Fusions; Critical Responses to Kiran Desai; New Perspectives in British Literature, Vol. 1 & 2; Indian Booker Prize Winners: A Critical Study of Their Works, Vol. 1 & 2; Modern Literary Theory, Vol. 1 & 2; and Canons of Children’s Literature, Vol. 1 & 2.
Dr. Sinha’s edited anthologies have contributions by scholars from various countries like America, Cameroon, Italy, France, Greece, Canada and Bangladesh. Currently, she is editing two international journals; The Atlantic Review of Feminist Studies, and The Atlantic Literary Review.
Carole Rozzonelli, Associate Professor of English, ITC, and Communications Law at the Institute for Information and Communication, University of Lyon 2, France, is former Vice-Chancellor in Communication of the University (2008-2012). Speaker in conferences in France and also in international conferences on English and ITC (Bergamo, Torino, Antwerp), she collaborates with Professor Alessandro Monti and has participated in the research international series DOST on Oriental Studies with the Department of Oriental Studies, Torino, Italy. She has published in Italy, India and France with Loescher Editore, L’Harmattan Italia, Edizioni dell’Orso, Atlantic Publishers, CercleS Editions, EADTU, Le Grimh Editions. She is on the advisory editorial board of The Atlantic Review of Feminist Studies.
