The Shakespearean Archive

Why is Shakespeare so often associated with information technologies and with the idea of archiving itself? Alan Galey explores this question through the entwined histories of Shakespearean texts and archival technologies over the past four centuries. In chapters dealing with the archive, the book, photography, sound, information, and data, Galey analyzes how Shakespeare became prototypical material for publishing experiments, and new media projects, as well as for theories of archiving and computing. Analyzing examples of the Shakespearean archive from the seventeenth century to today, he takes an original approach to Shakespeare and new media that will be of interest to scholars of the digital humanities, Shakespeare studies, archives, and media history. Rejecting the idea that current forms of computing are the result of technical forces beyond the scope of humanist inquiry, this book instead offers a critical prehistory of digitization read through the afterlives of Shakespeare's texts.

• Considers Shakespeare and information technology from a variety of perspectives and a broad historical view, appealing to both readers in specific periods and those whose interests cross period boundaries
• Addresses important questions in the digital humanities in an original way, taking new angles on the familiar topic of the transmission of Shakespeare's texts, making them accessible and appealing to traditional readers of the history of Shakespeare as well as readers in book and media history, media culture, digital humanities and media archaeology
• Looks at the application of new technologies to Shakespeare, and also the way Shakespeare affects the meaning of those technologies, making it accessible to new generations of readers looking for ways to integrate literary interpretation with technological experimentation