Simon Palfrey is an English Scholar at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and a Fellow in English at

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

. He specialises in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and

Renaissance literature Renaissance literature refers to European literature which was influenced by the intellectual and cultural tendencies associated with the Renaissance. The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general movement of the Renaissance, ...

Life and career

Palfrey was born in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, grew up in Australia and was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

. He is known for his approach to Shakespeare's work, in which he discusses the dynamism of the playwright's language, its psychological effects and the actorly and bodily decisions generated by word-use. His book ''Doing Shakespeare'' has been called "an original and long-overdue resource for theatre scholar-artists." It was listed as an "International Book of the Year" in 2004 by the ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

''. In the TLS,

Jonathan Bate Sir Andrew Jonathan Bate (born 26 June 1958) is a British academic, biographer, literary critic, broadcaster, and scholar, known for his work on Shakespeare, Romanticism, and ecocriticism. He is currently Foundation Professor of Environmental ...

said that although the work was "sometimes wayward," the book was 'always provocative of serious thought'. Bate could think 'of no critic since Empson who has teased out so much so lucidly and (usually) so persuasively from the intricacies of Shakespearean language." Palfrey's earlier book, ''Late Shakespeare: A New World of Worlds'' was described by Ann Jennalie Cook as 'among the most significant books of the year', 'a sweeping vision of these plays' language...indispensable for its subject', and as "a valuable contribution to the political reading of Renaissance literary forms" which challenged the traditional reading of Shakespeare's four romances. Russ McDonald writing in ''Shakespeare Quarterly'' described ''Late Shakespeare'' as "original, quirky, occasionally brilliant, and almost always demanding." Palfrey's 2007 collaboration with theatre historian Tiffany Stern, ''Shakespeare in Parts'', was awarded the 2009 Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society's David Bevington Prize for best new book. Palfrey's latest work is a collaborative novel written with fellow Shakespeare scholar Ewan Fernie.

Publications

* ''Late Shakespeare: A New World of Worlds'', Oxford University Press, (1997), . * ''Doing Shakespeare (Arden Shakespeare Third Series)'', Thomson Learning EMEA, (2004), . * "Macbeth and Kierkegaard" in ''Shakespeare Survey'', Volume 57: "Macbeth and its Afterlife," (2004), Cambridge, Edited by: Peter Holland. * 'The Rape of Marina', *Shakespeare International Yearbook 2007* * ''Shakespeare in Parts'', co-written wit
Tiffany Stern
(2007, by Oxford University Press). * ''Poor Tom: Living King Lear'', University of Chicago Press, (2014), Editor, with Ewan Fernie, of Shakespeare Now! series:Shakespeare Now!
/ref> * ''Shakespeare Thinking'' by Philip Davis, (2007). * ''Shakespeare Inside: The Bard Behind Bars'' by Amy Scott-Douglass, (2007). * ''Godless Shakespeare'' by Eric Mallin, (2007). * ''To Be or Not to Be'' by Douglas Bruster, (2007) * Shakespearean Metaphysics, by Michael Witmore (2008) * Shakespeare's Modern Collaborators, by Lukas Erne (2008) * Shakespeare's Double Helix, by henry S. Turner (2008)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palfrey, Simon Australian Rhodes Scholars Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford