ABSTRACT
The chapter is based on research through which British and Siberian students considered together points of similarity and difference in their responses to classical texts from each other’s literary traditions, through active exploration of how authors may be presented in and shaped by an educational context. In the case of Shakespeare, the context is far removed, both geographically and culturally, from that with whom his work is more usually associated. The chapter explores the means whereby notions of Shakespeare as quintessentially English in terms of language and identity are critically challenged with reference to the Russian experience of a similarly feted playwright, while alternative interpretations and dramatic constructions may be simultaneously celebrated.
