Over the past three decades, no critical movement has been more prominent in Shakespeare Studies than new historicism. And yet, it remains notoriously difficult to pin down, define and explain, let alone analyze. Shakespeare and New Historicist Theory provides a comprehensive scholarly analysis of new historicism as a development in Shakespeare studies while asking fundamental questions about its status as literary theory and its continued usefulness as a method of approaching Shakespeare's plays. Neema Parvini's concise and polemical retelling of this once powerful mode of critical reading is a useful reminder of what was gained by New Historicism, what its limitations were, and what kind of legacy it has left ? [The book] grapples succinctly with New Historicism's arguments across a range of theoretical and ideological interpretative practices ? Useful to anyone, students and scholars, in need of a quick reference guide to the gist of critique of New Historicism.