Shakespeare‘s Sonnets: Loves, Layers, Languages

‘Shakespeare‘s Sonnets: Loves, Layers, Languages‘ does not only testify to the longevity of the Bard´s sonnets by covering various original aspects from their publication to the present but also takes them beyond England, that is, to Wales and Scotland, and to the Continent. The fresh idea behind it is that Shakespeare´s sonnets are structured around shared themes, common situations, characters and specific effects which may even give them a ‘musical‘ quality. The section on ‘Loves‘ deals with the texts themselves, that is, matters of gender and sex, including the fictional identity of the "dark lady" and the "sweet youth". ‘Layers‘ does not only refer to the general idea of ‘layers of meaning‘ but rather to various degrees of friction and synthesis between form and content, and word and image. ‘Languages‘ implies the (linguistic) afterlife of the sonnets not only in Great Britain, but also in (regional) languages such as Welsh, Scottish, Esperanto, Latin and German dialects. Contributors include Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanley Wells, Paul Edmondson, Paul Franssen, Roy T. Eriksen, Erich Poppe, Wolfram R. Keller, and Wolfgang Weiss.