“Not stones but men”: publics and pedagogy in Shakespeare’s Roman plays

This essay utilises the representation of publics in William Shakespeare’s Roman plays to reflect on Shakespearean pedagogy and questions of public value. Through the use of a complexivist framework, this essay demonstrates how distinct areas of enquiry—the publics of Shakespeare’s Roman plays and pedagogical theory—can usefully illuminate each other and reflect on questions of Shakespeare as a public good. Peripheral publics in Titus Andronicus supply a model for transmission-style pedagogical frameworks; the publics of Julius Caesar and the networks of Antony and Cleopatra demonstrate the complexity of educational systems; and, finally, the representation of the people in Coriolanus interrogates the conceptualisation of the public and problematises notions of public value in Shakespeare and in higher education.