This book explores social justice and education inequalities globally for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students on education and other social science degree programmes. Using examples from a range of different countries, it examines the experiences of children and young people in education systems around the world and the policies that have sought, with differing degrees of success, to make education fairer.It provides you with the theoretical, conceptual and empirical tool...

''As flies to th' wanton boys are we to th' gods: They bite us for their sport.' Set in the recesses of British antiquity, King Lear broods on gift-giving, gratitude, service and love; the bonds that sustain human life within families, communities and the state. Concerned with what remains and what is possible when these bonds crack, cool off or come apart, the tragedy forces repeated confrontations with abysmal cruelty, which it yokes together with instances of c...

High blood glucose levels are a hallmark of diabetes mellitus, the medical term for a metabolic condition that can last for years. This disorder develops when insulin production is inadequate or when insulin is not used efficiently by the body. The pancreas secretes the hormone insulin, which is essential for controlling blood sugar levels. Millions of people all around the world are living with diabetes, making it a major public health issue. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the...

'I have had a most rare vision.' A Midsummer Night's Dream evokes images of fairies, dreams, changeling children, and actors being transformed into asses. But is the play as ethereal as these associations suggest? Varsha Panjwani argues that it a rare work of art that is both hilarious and profound, dream and nightmare, submissive and yet subversive. She demonstrates how this play uses dreams as a device to make us examine our reality and the power structures that...

'Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass, That I may see my shadow as I pass.' Richard III is Shakespeare's most charismatic protagonist-villain, exercising his wrongdoing with devilish glee and dazzling loquaciousness. He is also one of the most notorious examples in English literature of a damaging equation of disability with moral failing. The introduction to this edition provides a fresh take on this play's attractions and repulsions. Susan L. Anderson details...

'Born in a tempest when my mother died! This world to me is as a lasting storm.' Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a tale of adventure, fateful journeys, true love, and marvels. The play recycles a millennia-old story of a prince who sails around a mythic Mediterranean, starts a family, loses his wife and daughter, and is miraculously reunited with them years later. It packs in exciting incidents, from shipwreck to storms to murder, and a colourful cast of characters in...

'No, no, I am but shadow of myself...' Henry VI, Part I paints a vivid picture of political ambition, civil unrest, and war. One of Shakespeare's most collaborative plays, it was a theatrical hit when it was first performed in 1592. Scenes alternate between conflict at home and on foreign soil: between the growing civil dissention that would lead to the Wars of the Roses and the battles of the Hundred Years' War over England's claim to the French throne. It is an ...

'How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in't!' Performed variously as escapist fantasy, celebratory fiction, and political allegory, The Tempest is one of the plays in which Shakespeare's genius as a poetic dramatist found its fullest expression. Significantly, it was placed first when published in the First Folio of 1623, and is now generally seen as the playwright's most penetrating statement about his art. The New Oxford Shakespear...

'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?' Dark and violent, Macbeth is a restless, haunting exploration of the human costs of violence and power. One of the most theatrically spectacular of Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth has endured as a psychologically and supernaturally sinister work. Emma Smith's introduction considers the historical and contemporary contexts of the play, from the influence of the Gunpowder Plot as an act of domestic te...

Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948, Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies and of the year's major British performances. The theme for Volume 77 is 'Shakespeare's Poetry'. The complete set of Survey vo...

'I see a man's life is a tedious one.' Set in Ancient Britain, Cymbeline is a play of deceit, disguise, banishment, and fidelity against the backdrop of a Roman invasion. When the King of Britain Cymbeline discovers his daughter's secret marriage, he banishes her husband to Rome, who then accuses Innogen of being unfaithful. Innogen must evade deadly plots and homicidal jealousy to restore her name. Long recognised as a response to James VI and I's project to unit...

'For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground, And tell sad stories of the death of kings' Crowned as a child, Richard II only knows power. The King's court tire of his fickle, greedy reign, but it is only when he exiles his own cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and attempts to steal his inheritance that they are pushed to act. What follows threatens Richard's crown and with it his sense of self. Shakespeare's most tragic history play uses the rich and messy familial web of monarch...