ABSTRACT
At this stage of exploration and opening up of fresh vistas, the new historical and materialist criticism of Shakespeare deserves respect when, seeking to avoid self-congratulation, it is positively concerned to dispel any impression of undue conceptual unity or methodological coherence. This becomes obvious in at least three areas of theory against which the discursive acts and social functions of ideology in the Shakespearean theatre can helpfully be discussed. These areas involve: (1) the space of conflict and / or concurrence between mimesis and signification; (2) the uses of representation as a specifically theatrical type of historical activity; (3) the social and ideological uses of authority in this connection.
