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  3. Extended Reality Shakespeare
  • Cited by 6
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
February 2024
Print publication year:
2024
Online ISBN:
9781009043854
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043854
Series:
Elements in Shakespeare Performance
Subjects:
Literature, Renaissance and Early Modern Literature
Information

Book description

This Element argues for the importance of extended reality as an innovative force that changes the understanding of theatre and Shakespeare. It shows how the inclusion of augmented and virtual realities in performance can reconfigure the senses of the experiencers, enabling them to engage with technology actively. Such engagements can, in turn, result in new forms of presence, embodiment, eventfulness, and interaction. In drawing on Shakespeare's dramas as source material, this Element recognises the growing practice of staging them in an extended reality mode, and their potential to advance the development of extended reality. Given Shakespeare's emphasis on metatheatre, his works can inspire the layering of environments and the experiences of transition between the environments both features that distinguish extended reality. The author's examination of selected works in this Element unveils creative convergences between Shakespeare's dramaturgy and digital technology.

References

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