This eighth volume of The Shakespearean International Yearbook presents a special section on "European Shakespeares," which highlights how the inclusion of Shakespeare in European culture has been not only a European but also a world affair. Contributors to this issue come from Europe, North America, South Africa, and India. In addition to the section on European Shakespeares, essays in this volume consider issues of character and the genre of romance, and other topics.

Contents: Part I Special Section: 'European Shakespeares', Edited by Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo: Introduction: European Shakespeare - quo vadis?, Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo; The chore and the passion: Shakespeare and graduation in mid-20th century Portugal, Rui Carvalho Homem; Henry V and the Anglo-Greek alliance in World War II, Tina Krontiris; Asian Shakespeares in Europe: from the unfamiliar to the defamiliarised, Alexander C.Y. Huang; Rearticulating a culture of links: Peter Brook's European Shakespeare, Fran Rayner; Shakespeare uprooted: the BBC and ShakespeareRe-Told (2005), Clara Calvo and Ton Hoenselaars; The anti-Americanism of EU Shakespeare, Douglas Bruster; Shakespeare and France in the European mirror, Jean-Christophe Mayer. Part II Shapes of Character: Man's chief good: the Shakespearean character as evaluator, Mustapha Fahmi; 'I have no other but a woman's reason': folly, femininity and sexuality in Renaissance discourses and Shakespeare's plays, Paromita Chakravarti. Part III Shapes of Romance: Shipwreck and ecology: towards a structural theory of Shakespeare and romance, Steve Mentz; Great miracle or lying wonder: Janus-faced romance in Pericles, Tiffany J. Werth; 'Better days': cultural memory in As You Like It, Indira Ghose. Part IV Review Essays: (Re)presenting Shakespeare's co-authors: lessons from the Oxford Shakespeare, Tom Rooney; Inventing the human: brontosaurus Bloom and 'the Shakespeare in us', Laurence Wright; Bibliography; Index.

Graham Bradshaw is based at Chuo University, Japan. Tom Bishop is based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Ton Hoenselaars is based at the Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Clara Calvo is based at the University of Murcia, Spain.