Okładki szekspirowskie jako zwierciadło kultury
Shakespearean Book Covers as a Mirror of Culture

A Reconnaissance

Summary/Abstract: Referring to Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory and to Even-Zohan’s polysystem theory, I show how we can interpret the way Shakespeare’s works are published in Great Britain and the United States. The book cover treated as a cultural fact points to a network of connexions of very different processes as well as to the dynamics of shifts taking place within these networks. In the article, I discuss the essence of old luxury editions as a function of the owner’s social status, their education and aspirations, but also of Shakespeare’s place in the hegemony of culture of a given period or of economic links between the publishing market and the buyer. I enquire into the changing nature of these relations by tracing the history of publishing Shakespeare’s works in the 19th and 20th centuries and paying close attention to their English-language academic, cheap ‘pocket-book’, school, and popular editions. Viewed from the perspective of cultural studies, the book cover constitutes a paratext which is an important element of every published literary work. It enables interpretation of the given text’s significance on numerous levels; moreover, it makes it possible to observe the phenomenon at issue both synchronically and diachronically in various systems and to trace the transformations of the text, the author, its prestige and reception. Examination of book covers can be also an important part of research into shifts within social, economic, and political systems, thus enabling us not only to draw conclusions relating to a given phenomenon but also those concerning changes in how a culture functions.

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