Shakespeare and Fun

<b>In this bold original study Hedrick proposes an early modern 'entertainment value' revolution to which Shakespeare contributed and in which he played a competitive role.</b><br/><b><br/></b>As London's nascent capitalist industry developed and the variety of entertainments proliferated theatre contributes to the birth of entertainment value and a commercial trajectory toward what Marxist critic Adorno theorizes as 'fun ' seen contemporaneously in LasVegasization and the election of Donald Trump to U.S. Presidency.<br/><br/>In this innovative approach to Shakespeare's plays through their compulsory competitive relation to other choices from London's entertainment industry such as sex work and gaming Hedrick recovers a coherent internal dynamic of theatre's 'pleasure enclosure' accompanying the revolutionary logic of capital's new cultural and economic extremes.<br/> <br/> Applying these relations to original insightful readings of <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream The Winter's Tale</i> and <i>The Taming of the Shrew </i> Hedrick draws from cultural studies contemporary and personal parallels wide-ranging historical materials and political theory. These include: the semantic shifts in keywords of pleasure the practice of betting on actors the psychology of paying admission <i>before</i>an entertainment and various 'reality shows' such as contests of prose and verse. Continual insights emerge both broad and specific: from ten 'entertainment value axioms' to Shakespeare's awareness of entertainment value's birth at moments in his late plays marking a logic of value crisis bubbles and the danger of 'too much fun.'