ABSTRACT
Why is Shakespeare fetishized in Western popular-as well as Western highculture? Who does the fetishizing, and what work does that fetishization do? What is the relationship of Shakespeare as fetish to current debates about Shakespeare in the academy, including the role of Shakespeare as the anchor of the canon, the Bloomingdales or Neiman Marcus (or, as we’ll see shortly, the Wanamakers) of the upscale shopping mall which is the present-day English department? What has the fetishization of Shakespeare to do with recent critical emphases on colonialism, imperialism, undecidability, feminism, and the discourse of subjectivity?
