Historical Development of Shakespeare's Criticism: A Brief Survey from Dryden to Cultural Materialism

Traditionally, it was considered that Shakespeare was universal and for all times. However, the history of criticism on his work has opened up new horizons and has portrayed that Shakespeare was not only reflecting universal human behavior, but he was also reflecting specific issues of his own time. A brief survey of criticism on Shakespeare's works reveals a vast distance between what critics of his own time regarded as crucial, form what is now sought in his texts. While earlier criticism mainly engaged in analyzing the characters in Shakespeare's plays, later criticism began to deal with his plays as texts intended to be played. This textual study of the play later shifted to include psychoanalytical, feminist and contextual matters and issues. The present paper attempts to provide a brief outline of some of the major criticism directed at Shakespeare's work from Dryden till the present time, applying Hans Robert Jauss's theory of Reception Aesthetics.