Peter Kirwan

Contact

• workRoom C17 Trent
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 748 4115
• fax0115 951 5924
• Peter.Kirwan@nottingham.ac.uk

Expertise Summary

Biography:

I joined the University of Nottingham as Teaching Associate in September 2011, after completing a PhD at the University of Warwick with Professor Jonathan Bate. My primary research interrogates the idea of the "Shakespeare Apocrypha" and the methodologies used to separate "authentic" from "disputed" plays. I have a particular interest in the early modern theatre and the afterlives of Renaissance plays, particularly in contemporary performance.

Research interests:

• Early modern drama and book culture
• Contemporary Shakespearean performance, modern theatre and reviewing theory
• Textual and editorial theory and practice
• Collaborative, anonymous and disputed drama
• Performance history and reviewing theory
• Pedagogy (especially the use of rehearsal/performance techniques)

Forthcoming publications:

• Associate Editor for Collaborative Plays by Shakespeare and Others (eds. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. Macmillan, 2013).
• 'Apocrypha and Canonical Expansion in the Marketplace.' Forthcoming in Philological Quarterly (2012).
• 'Canonising the Shakespeare Apocrypha: Shakespeare, Middleton, and Co-Existent Canons.' Forthcoming in Literature Compass (2012).
• '"Persons may easily play it": Problems of Popularity for Mucedorus.' Forthcoming in The Elizabethan Top Ten, eds. Andy Kesson and Emma Smith (Ashgate, 2012).
• 'Pedagogy and Resources.' Commissioned for Twelfth Night: A Critical Guide, eds. Alison Findlay and Liz Oakley-Brown (Continuum).
• "We ring this round with our invoking spells": Magic as Embedded Authorship in The Merry Devil of Edmonton.' Accepted for proposed collection on Shakespeare and the Occult.
• 'Teaching with Blogs.' Chapter for inclusion in Shakespeare and the Digital, eds. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan (under review for Cambridge).

Other publications:

• Stage histories for nine individual editions in the RSC Shakespeare (ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen): Richard II, Coriolanus, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Pericles, Henry VI, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Troilus and Cressida (2010-2012).
• Review articles for Shakespeare, Cahiers Elisabethains, Law and the Humanities and The Quest for Shakespeare's Cardenio (eds. Gary Taylor and David Carnegie, 2012).
• Performance and book reviews for Shakespeare, Shakespeare Bulletin, Cahiers Elisabethains, Shakespearean Criticism, Early Theatre, Editionen in der Kritik, Arts Professional, Research Opportunities in Medieval and Renaissance Drama.
• Author of The Bardathon academic theatre review blog (http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/pkirwan).

Conference presentations in 2011/12:

• 'Chasing Windmills: Where Next for Cardenio?' The Shakespeare Club, Stratford-upon-Avon, 13 September 2011.
• ' "Persons may easily play it": Problems of Popularity for Mucedorus.' Hertford College, University of Oxford, 24 September 2011.
• 'A Yorkshire Tragedy in Rep: Genre and Contexts.' A Yorkshire Tragedy Symposium, University of Montpellier, 4 November 2011.
• 'Shakespeare the Collaborator' (round table discussion). Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, 25 November 2011.
• '"Cursed Locrine, look vnto thy selfe": The Ambiguous Labour of W.S.' Authorship and Collaboration in the Renaissance, Queen's University Belfast, 13 January 2012.
• '"From the table of my memory": Blogging Shakespeare In/Out of the Classroom.' British Shakespeare Association Conference, Lancaster University, 25 February 2012.
• Pre-show lecture on Romeo and Juliet, Nottingham Playhouse, 21 March 2012.
• 'Shakespeare's Grossest Errors: Conditional Acceptance of the Apocrypha.' Shakespeare Association of America, Boston, 7 April 2012.
• 'Anonymous: A Dangerous Fiction?' Popular Fiction and the English Renaissance, Newcastle University, 15 April 2012.
• Presentation at staff research seminar, University of York, 6 June 2012.

Projects in preparation:

• Monograph on Shakespeare and the Idea of Apocrypha (submitted for review in 2012).
• Edited collection (with Dr. Christie Carson) on Shakespeare and the Digital (under review for Cambridge).

Teaching Summary

In 2011/12 I am convening three modules, as well as the MA in Issues in Theatre Research:

• Q3109S Shakespeare's Histories: Critical Approaches (UG Year One)
• Q33601 Shakespeare and Jonson (UG Year 3)
• Q34825 Performance, Practice, and Analysis (MA)

I teach on the following courses:

• Q3109S Shakespeare's Histories: Critical Approaches (lectures: overview, Richard II, Henry V)
• Q31501 Introduction to Drama (workshops and seminars; lecture on The Beggar's Opera)
• Q32501 Analysing Performance (seminars; lecture on intercultural performance)
• Q33601 Shakespeare and Jonson (seminar/lectures)
• Q31401 Academic Community (seminars)
• Q34825 Performance, Practice, and Analysis (tutorials)

I am happy to discuss dissertation proposals for undergraduates and postgraduates interested in Shakespeare, early modern drama, early modern textual culture, performance analysis and contemporary theatre.

Selected Publications

• KIRWAN, P., 2010. "What's past is prologue": Negotiating the authority of tense in reviewing Shakespeare SHAKESPEARE -TAYLOR AND FRANCIS-. VOL 6(NUMBER 3), 337-342
• KIRWAN, P, 2011. The First Collected "Shakespeare Apocrypha" Shakespeare Quarterly. 62(4), 594-601

• View all publications

• KIRWAN, P, 2011. Chasing Windmills: An Identity Crisis in Double Falsehood at the Union Theatre, Southwark SHAKESPEARE. 7(3), 329-334
• KIRWAN, P, 2011. The First Collected "Shakespeare Apocrypha" Shakespeare Quarterly. 62(4), 594-601
• KIRWAN, P., 2010. "What's past is prologue": Negotiating the authority of tense in reviewing Shakespeare SHAKESPEARE -TAYLOR AND FRANCIS-. VOL 6(NUMBER 3), 337-342
• KIRWAN, P, 2007. ""Eke our our performance with your minds": the impact of the RSC's Complete Works Festival on audience expectations and involvement." CAHIERS ELISABETHAINS. Special Issue, 99-102