This book deals with Shakespeare’s role in contemporary culture. It looks in detail at the way that Shakespeare’s plays inform modern ideas of cultural value and the work required to make Shakespeare part of modern culture.

It is unique in using social policy, anthropology and economics, as well as close readings of the playwright, to show how a text from the past becomes part of contemporary culture and how Shakespeare’s writing informs modern ideas of cultural value. It goes beyond the twentieth-century cultural studies debates that argued the case for and against Shakespeare’s status, to show how he can exist both as a free artistic resource and as a branded product in the cultural marketplace.

It will appeal not only to scholars studying Shakespeare, but also to educators and any reader interested in contemporary cultural policy.