Mapping Shakespeare in Street Art

Many traces of Shakespeare have been disseminated in the graffiti world; conversely, the grammar of graffiti has often been used by theatre, cinema, advertising and visual art to bring Shakespeare and his work up to date for today’s audiences. It is for this reason that I would like to propose a possible new methodology for approaching the study of Shakespeare through the analysis of verbal and visual quotations from his plays in graffiti and street art – two relatively new but important cultural phenomena. Poetic, quotidian or coarse, subversive or commodified, but always engaging, graffiti and post graffiti art have set up a dialogue with Shakespeare in various ways to the point one may “fantasize” (just to quote Burt in his preface to Shakespeares after Shakespeare) about an archive that would include Shakespeare-related-graffiti and post-graffiti and could contribute to the investigation of the Elizabethan playwright in a mediatized world.