Scene
Reviewer: Roderick H McKeown
Roderick McKeown recently defended his PhD at the University of Toronto. His thesis, “Performative Language and Social Status in Shakespeare,” won his university's Clifford Leech Prize for the best doctoral thesis on dramatic literature. The work explores the complex operation of socially situated utterances in making powerful – yet off-record – claims to social status through a more nuanced understanding of the interrelationship between performative and "constative" speech. While revising his thesis for publication as monograph, he launched a new project, using early modern letters as historical context to examine the dynamics of extended families in Tudor and Stuart domestic tragedies. His publications include articles on Henry VIII (or All is True), Much Ado About Nothing, and The Three Ladies of London, in addition to theater reviews.