Shakespeare against Genre

Abstract

This essay sets out to investigate the ways in which the “laws” of genre are negotiated in a range of Shakespeare's plays, particularly those where questions of “form” and “content” seem to be in opposition to each other. Traditional accounts of genre prove to be inadequate to account for the shifts of emphasis that take place as Shakespeare moves from one genre to another, with the result that it is possible to detect the existence of various generic motifs in plays that are classified as, nominally at any rate, either “comedies” or “tragedies.” A selective series of examples are adduced to argue that it is difficult to assign a generic identity to a Shakespeare play without invoking other genres and other rules that govern them. In part, the argument also impinges upon the issue of “sources” since Shakespeare re-visits and re-uses motifs and themes in plays that are nominally identified as belonging to different genres. Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labours Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream furnish a number of examples, as do The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and Othello. Throughout his oeuvre Shakespeare can be seen to be negotiating (and transgressing) the laws of genre, sometimes offering alternatives, but in other cases, such as The Winter's Tale amalgamating genres that in earlier plays remained relatively distinct. To this extent Shakespeare can be seen to be resisting the pull of genre, and we are left with the question of the extent to which the retrospective imposition of generic rules is a function of the commentator, rather than the dramatist.