ABSTRACT

This chapter explores a William Shakespeare Association of America seminar entitled 'Normative Shakespeares', the utility for general and particular descriptions of Shakespeare of a set of twentieth-century terms that have passed into general use from origins in sociology and anthropology: norm, normal, normative, normativity. It explains a general account of ways in which Shakespeare's texts could be considered normative in this prescriptive way, then turn to the example of All's Well That Ends Well, and a play that treats norms of chastity in a fascinating way. Shakespeare certainly serves as an implicit standard, both locally in judging Renaissance drama and more broadly in judgements of success in creating literary characters who assume an imaginative life beyond the particular texts in which they are introduced. Shakespeare is normative in this broadly cultural way often takes as its evidence claims by cultural politicians that he represents a universal humanity.