Call for Book Chapters: “Shakespeare and Religion”

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals to be included in a forthcoming edited collection on “Shakespeare and Religion”.

The editor seeks essays exploring various powerful aspects of religion in his plays. Papers should combine close analysis with historical documentation, and originality with rigor. 

No play by William Shakespeare omits religion. Regardless of setting or period, in one form or another, religion is a part of the universe of every Shakespearean history, comedy, and tragedy. For a playwright, religion is an obvious source of dramatic conflict, and in several of Shakespeare’s plays, religious difference overlaps with ethnicity or nationality. Shakespeare’s handling of religion and of religious difference is not easily predictable, however. The collection will convey some of the range and multi-valent reach of the world’s most famous playwright, from the earliest plays to the last.

The huge subject of “Shakespeare and Religion” has vast potential. Possible approaches include but are not limited to: 

• Shakespeare’s treatment of the B.C.E. in classical Roman or Greek settings
• The Classical and the Biblical in individual plays
• Shakespeare’s treatment of other nations in connection with religion
• Religion and history; Shakespeare’s alterations to English history
• Shakespeare and sources; use of or changes from sources, on religion
• Shakespeare’s treatment of religious division in individual plays
• Religion as imagery in the language of the plays
• Religion and the creation of characters
• Religion and genre

Details of submission:

Deadlines: 300-word abstracts due October 15, 2022; completed articles due March 15, 2023

Projected length for chapters: 5,000 - 10,000 words

Preferred reference style: Chicago

Correspondence: direct responses to Margie Burns, UMBC, mburns@umbc.edu