Laurie Johnson, 'Shakespeare's Sewers And Bodily Politics'

Laurie Johnson is Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at the University of Southern Queensland. He is the President of the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association, and his publications include The Tain of Hamlet (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) and The Wolf Man’s Burden (Cornell University Press, 2001). He is currently finishing a book on the Newington Butts playhouse and the plays performed there in 1594 by the Admiral’s Men and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. This paper, ‘“The Silver Spring Where England Drinks”: Shakespeare’s Sewers and Bodily Politics’ was delivered at a conference on ‘Shakespeare and the Body Politic’ at The University of Queensland on 28 November 2016. It examines the association of sewers in Shakespeare’s time with the body politic.