This eighth volume of The Shakespearean International Yearbook presents a special section on "European Shakespeares," proceeding from the claim that Shakespeare's literary craft was not just native English or British, but was filtered and fashioned through a Renaissance awareness that needs to be recognized as European, and that has had effects and afterlives across the Continent. Guest editors Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo have constructed this section to highlight both how the spread of "Shakespeare" throughout Europe has brought together the energies of a wide variety of European cultures across several centuries, and how the inclusion of Shakespeare in European culture has been not only a European but also a world affair.

The Shakespearean International Yearbook continues to provide an annual survey of important issues and developments in contemporary Shakespeare studies. Contributors to this issue come from the US and the UK, Spain, Switzerland and South Africa, Canada, The Netherlands, India, Portugal, Greece, France, and Hungary. In addition to the section on European Shakespeares, this volume includes essays on the genre of romance, issues of character, and other topics.

Contents: Part I 'European Shakespeares', Edited by Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo: Introduction: European Shakespeare: quo vadis, Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo; The chore and the passion: Shakespeare and graduation in mid-20th century Portugal, Rui Carvalho Homem; Henry V and the Anglo-Greek alliance in World War II, Tina Krontiris; Asian Shakespeares in Europe, Alexander Huang; Rearticulating a culture of links: Peter Brook's European Shakespeare, Fran Rayner; Shakespeare uprooted: the BBC and Shakespeare Re-Told (2005), Clara Calvo and Ton Hoenselaars; The anti-Americanism of EU Shakespeare, Douglas Bruster; Shakespeare and France in the European mirror, Jean-Christophe Mayer. Part II Shapes of Character: Man's chief good: the Shakespearean character as evaluator, Mustapha Fahmi; 'I have no other but a woman's reason': folly, femininity and sexuality in Renaissance discourses and Shakespeare's plays, Paromita Chakravarti. Part III Shapes of Romance: Shipwreck and ecology: towards a structural theory of Shakespeare and romance, Steve Mentz; Great miracle or lying wonder: Janus-faced romance in Pericles, Tiffany Alkan; 'Better days': cultural memory in As You Like It, Indira Ghose. Part IV Review Essays: (Re)presenting Shakespeare's co-authors: lessons from the Oxford Shakespeare, Tom Rooney; Inventing the human: brontosaurus Bloom and 'the Shakespeare in us', Lawrence Wright; Bibliography; Index.

About the Editor: Graham Bradshaw, Chuo University, Japan, Tom Bishop, University of Auckland, New Zealand, Ton Hoenselaars, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Clara Calvo, University of Murcia, Spain