Andrew Murphy – författare

Shakespeare in Print is a comprehensive 2003 account of Shakespeare publishing and an indispensable research resource. Andrew Murphy sets out the history of the Shakespeare text from the Renaissance through to the twenty-first century, from the twin perspectives of editing and publishing history. Murphy tackles issues of editorial and textual theory in an accessible and engaging manner. He draws on a wide range of archival materials and attends to topics little explored by previous scholars, such as the importance of Scottish and Irish editions in the eighteenth century, the rise of the educational edition and the history and significance of mass-market editions. The extensive appendix is an invaluable reference tool which provides full publishing details of all single-text Shakespeare editions up to 1709 and all collected editions up to 1821. The listing also provides details of a selected range of major editions beyond these dates to the present day.

Beginning by mapping out an overview of the expansion of elementary education in Britain across the nineteenth century, Andrew Murphy explores the manner in which Shakespeare acquired a working-class readership. He traces developments in publishing which meant that editions of Shakespeare became ever cheaper as the century progressed. Drawing on more than a hundred published and manuscript autobiographical texts, the book examines the experiences of a wide range of working-class readers. Particular attention is focused on a set of radical readers for whom Shakespeare's work had a special political resonance. Murphy explores the reasons why the playwright's working-class readership began to fall away from the turn of the century, noting the competition he faced from professional sports, the cinema, radio and television. The book concludes by asking whether it matters that, in our own time, Shakespeare no longer commands a general popular audience.

Beginning by mapping out an overview of the expansion of elementary education in Britain across the nineteenth century, Andrew Murphy explores the manner in which Shakespeare acquired a working-class readership. He traces developments in publishing which meant that editions of Shakespeare became ever cheaper as the century progressed. Drawing on more than a hundred published and manuscript autobiographical texts, the book examines the experiences of a wide range of working-class readers. Particular attention is focused on a set of radical readers for whom Shakespeare's work had a special political resonance. Murphy explores the reasons why the playwright's working-class readership began to fall away from the turn of the century, noting the competition he faced from professional sports, the cinema, radio and television. The book concludes by asking whether it matters that, in our own time, Shakespeare no longer commands a general popular audience.

This collection of essays focuses attention on the broad issue of Renaissance textuality. It explores such topics as the position of the reader relative to the text; the impact of editorial strategies and modes of presentation on our understanding of the text; the complexities of extended textual histories; and the relevance of gender to the process of textual retrieval and preservation.The essays, whilst informed by contemporary theory, are not dominated by a single programmatic viewpoint. Reflecting the multiplicitous nature of Renaissance textuality, the collection provides space for a variety of different positions and lines of analysis and enquiry. The Renaissance text will be of interest to those with specialist concerns in editing, textuality and bibliography, and will also be of interest to those more generally concerned with Renaissance literature or with textual or literary history.

Shakespeare and Scotland is a timely collection of new essays in which leading scholars on both sides of the Atlantic address a neglected national context for an exemplary body of dramatic work too often viewed within a narrow English milieu or against a broad British backdrop. These essays explore, from a variety of critical perspectives, the playwright's place in Scotland and the place of Scotland in his work. From critical reception to dramatic and cinematic adaptation, the contributors engage with the complexity of Shakespeare's Scotland and Scotland's Shakespeare. The influence of Scotland on Shakespeare's writing, and later on his reception, is set alongside the dramatic effects that Shakespeare's work had on the development of Scottish literature, from the Globe to globalisation, and from Captain Jamy and King James to radical productions at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow.

In this second edition of his popular book on Heaney, Andrew Murphy charts the trajectory of Heaney’s career as a poet and places his work within its various contexts. Seamus Heaney is one of the foremost poets of his generation and his work is highly prized by scholars and general readers alike. It is a measure of his success as a writer, and of the high-esteem in which he is held, that he has been appointed to professorships at both Harvard and Oxford and that he was, in 1995 awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The appeal of Heaney’s poetry lies in its gracefulness, its meticulous attention to the sound and structure of language, and the range of topics engaged by the poet – from the precise particularity of the local and the familial to greater political, social and cultural themes. Heaney’s poetry is seen within the framework of the Irish poetic tradition and the poet is also located within his crucial social and political context as a writer from the North of Ireland, who seeks a fruitful engagement with the conflicts affecting his homeland. Heaney emerges from this clearly written study as a complex and multi-faceted figure, passionately engaged by poetry and politics alike.

At the rise of the Tudor age, England began to form a national identity. With that sense of self came the beginnings of the colonialist notion of the "other"" Ireland, however, proved a most difficult other because it was so closely linked, both culturally and geographically, to England. Ireland's colonial position was especially complex because of the political, religious, and ethnic heritage it shared with England. Andrew Murphy asserts that the Irish were seen not as absolute but as "proximate" others. As a result, English writing about Ireland was a problematic process, since standard colonial stereotypes never quite fit the Irish. But the Irish Sea Betwixt Us examines the English view of the "imperfect" other by looking at Ireland through works by Spenser, Jonson, and Shakespeare. Murphy also considers a broad range of materials from the Renaissance period, including journals, pamphlets, histories, and state papers.

The Nation and British Literature and Culture charts the emergence of Britain as a political, social and cultural construct, examining the manner in which its constituent elements were brought together through a process of amalgamation and conquest. The fashioning of the nation through literature and culture is examined, as well as counter narratives that have sought to call national orthodoxies into question. Specific topics explored include the emergence of a distinctively national literature in the early modern period; the impact of French Revolution on conceptions of Britishness; portrayals of empire in popular and literary fiction; popular music and national imagining; the marginalisation and oppression of particular communities within the nation. The volume concludes by asking what implications an extended set of contemporary crises have for the ongoing survival both of the United Kingdom, both as a political unit and as a literary and cultural point of identity.

The emergence of an Irish 'common reader' in the nineteenth century had significant implications for the evolution of Irish cultural nationalism. The rise of literacy rates prompted a cultural crisis, with nationalists fearing that the beneficiaries of mass education were being drawn to populist publications emanating from London which were having the effect of eroding Irish identity and corrupting Irish morals. This fear prompted an intensification of cultural nationalist activity at the turn of the century. Andrew Murphy's study, which includes a chapter on W. B. Yeats and the Irish reader, moves freely between historical and literary analysis, and demonstrates how a developing sense of cultural crisis served as an engine for the Irish literary revival. Examining responses to Irish reading habits advanced by a wide range of cultural commentators, Murphy provides a nuanced discussion of theories of nationalism and examines attempts finally to control reading habits through the introduction of censorship.

Described by the TLS as 'a formidable bibliographical achievement ... destined to become a key reference work for Shakespeareans', Shakespeare in Print is now issued in a revised and expanded edition offering a wealth of new material, including a chapter which maps the history of digital editions from the earliest computer-generated texts to the very latest digital resources. Murphy's narrative offers a masterful overview of the history of Shakespeare publishing and editing, teasing out the greater cultural significance of the ways in which the plays and poems have been disseminated and received over the centuries from Shakespeare's time to our own. The opening chapters have been completely rewritten to offer close engagement with the careers of the network of publishers and printers who first brought Shakespeare to print, additional material has been added to all chapters, and the chronological appendix has been updated and expanded.

Through a selection of essays from a variety of scholarly voices, this volume maps the various ways in which Shakespeare has been adapted, adopted and appropriated in Ireland from the late 17th century through to the present day.Shakespeare's plays have been performed in Ireland since the 1660s, when Smock Alley theatre was established in Dublin, with Shakespeare serving as its essential stock-in-trade. Since then the playwright's work has played a central role in the formation of Irish culture. His works helped to fashion colonial identity in Ireland in the 18th century and beyond, but, from the 1800s onwards, Shakespeare also became an important figure for Irish nationalists.In the modern period, Shakespeare’s influence can also be discerned in the work of a broad range of Irish writers, and this volume considers the impact of his plays on such authors as Synge, Joyce, Beckett and others. The volume also explores the place of Shakespeare in the Irish theatrical tradition.Shakespeare in Ireland explores the history of Irish Shakespeare through the numerous ways in which the playwright and his work were reconfigured and recycled in various Irish contexts. The volume demonstrates how Shakespeare has been rendered Irish in a variety of complex ways, and it aims to track, over time, the story of how Shakespeare became a fully hibernicised figure.

Through a selection of essays from a variety of scholarly voices, this volume maps the various ways in which Shakespeare has been adapted, adopted and appropriated in Ireland from the late 17th century through to the present day.Shakespeare's plays have been performed in Ireland since the 1660s, when Smock Alley theatre was established in Dublin, with Shakespeare serving as its essential stock-in-trade. Since then the playwright's work has played a central role in the formation of Irish culture. His works helped to fashion colonial identity in Ireland in the 18th century and beyond, but, from the 1800s onwards, Shakespeare also became an important figure for Irish nationalists.In the modern period, Shakespeare’s influence can also be discerned in the work of a broad range of Irish writers, and this volume considers the impact of his plays on such authors as Synge, Joyce, Beckett and others. The volume also explores the place of Shakespeare in the Irish theatrical tradition.Shakespeare in Ireland explores the history of Irish Shakespeare through the numerous ways in which the playwright and his work were reconfigured and recycled in various Irish contexts. The volume demonstrates how Shakespeare has been rendered Irish in a variety of complex ways, and it aims to track, over time, the story of how Shakespeare became a fully hibernicised figure.