Abstract
This article draws attention to a group of remarkably similar novels published between 2003 and 2009: William Martins Harvard Yard, Jennifer Lee Carrells The Shakespeare Secret (also known as Interred with Their Bones), Jean Rae Baxters Looking for Cardenio, and A. J. Hartleys What Time Devours. Each of these mysteries portrays a para-academic protagonists literary quest to re-discover one of Shakespeares so-called ghost plays that is, either Loves Labours Won or Cardenio. This article seeks, firstly, to locate these novels imaginative treatments of lost Shakespearean works in relation to academic trends and ideas about these two plays. It then turns its attention to codifying and analysing the common characteristics of this microgenre. In so doing, it highlights how this group of novels is conspicuously infused with the imagery and discourses of spectrality: they recurrently redeploy metaphors of haunting, liminality, and ephemerality to portray the mechanics and significance of Shakespearean literary discovery.
| Original language | English (Ireland) |
|---|---|
| Journal | English |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue number | 258 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |
Authors (Note for portal: view the doc link for the full list of authors)
- Authors
- Lindsay Ann Reid