Stephen Jay Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor at Harvard University, where he teaches English. A founding editor of the journal Representations, he is a key figure in what is known as New Historicism (or cultural poetics). Beginning with the publication of Renaissance Self-Fashioning in 1984, his books have had a transformative effect on scholarship and teaching of Shakespeare and the English Renaissance. He is also the general editor of The Norton Shakespeare (1997).Michael Payne is John P. Crozer Professor of English Literature at Bucknell University. His recent publications include A Dictionary of Critical and Cultural Theory (1996), Reading Knowledge (1997), and Renaissance Literature: An Anthology (2003) – all published by Blackwell Publishing.

“As a founder of the ‘new historicism’, Stephen Greenblatt has done more than establish a critical school; he has invented a habit of mind for literary criticism, which is indispensable to the temperament of our times, and crucial to the culture of the past. This admirable anthology represents the subtle play of pleasure and instruction, embodied in writings that move effortlessly between wonder and wisdom.” Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University “What a tribute to a long and distinguished career.”"For three decades Stephen Greenblatt has been the most articulate, thoughtful, and daring voice in early modern studies. The breadth of his reading is vast, the connections he makes are unexpected and often revelatory, and his writing is, quite simply, brilliant. Most of all, his willingness to take chances has made him an exciting and uniquely provocative critic. It is wonderful to have these classic essays in a single collection; and especially to have the most ephemeral of the pieces, the exquisite meditations on his visits to China and Laos, easily available. This is a beautifully conceived, indispensable volume." Stephen Orgel, Stanford University

• Acknowledgments. Introduction: Greenblatt and New Historicism.Part One: Culture and New Historicism.1 Culture.2 Towards a Poetics of Culture.3 The Touch of the Real.Part Two: Renaissance Studies.4 The Wound in the Wall.5 Marvelous Possessions.Part Three: Shakespeare Studies.6 Invisible Bullets.7 The Improvisation of Power.8 Shakespeare and the Exorcists.9 Martial Law in the Land of Cocaigne.Part Four: Occasional Pieces.10 Prologue to Hamlet in Purgatory.11 China: Visiting Rites.12 China: Visiting Rites (II).13 Laos is Open.14 Story-Telling.Stephen Greenblatt: A Bibliography (1965-2003), compiled by Gustavo P. Secchi.Index