Dr Amy Lidster

About

Dr Amy Lidster specializes in Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, and book history. Her current research concentrates on early modern drama, on the ways in which performance practices and publication shape meaning, on the writing of history, on the construction of authorship, and on the relationship between the arts and wartime.

She is the author of two books and an edited collection. Publishing the History Play in the Time of Shakespeare (Cambridge University Press, 2022) draws attention to the overdominance of Shakespeare as a touchstone for understanding the ‘history play’ and reveals how the book trade has helped to determine our understanding of historical drama and our access to it.

Wartime Shakespeare: Performing Narratives of Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2023) explores how Shakespeare has been used or ‘mobilized’ during periods of conflict spanning the 17th to the 21st century. Related to this book is a collection of essays called Shakespeare at War: A Material History, co-edited with Sonia Massai, that examines how material objects tell revealing stories about how the arts have been used to shape experiences of conflict. It features contributions from scholars, theatre directors including Nicholas Hytner and Iqbal Khan, and public figures, including Colonel Tim Collins. It is linked to a public exhibition, Shakespeare at War, at the National Army Museum, London (opening October 2023), which Amy is co-curating.