Power, Horology and Imperial Doubt: Reimagining Time in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2025/10/08 by Courtney Naum Scuro · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Joseph Conrad and Literature #Literature: history, themes, analysis #Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

paper · doi:10.1017/9781009647564.019

openalex publication_date 2025/10/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/13

Abstract

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream , competing approaches to timekeeping raise questions not only about the nature of time, but about who has influence over whom, why and when. This article explores overlooked intersections between time-practices and politics of place, empire, class and technology which preoccupy Shakespeare in Dream.

Discussions

• YES! And the earlier we go, the more we can see mechanized timekeeping devices as objects that are about working out the relationship between human ingenuity, time, world (says the biased early modern [bsky, 4 points, 1 comments]

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