Shakespeare: collective mind and minor traditions.

The notion of influence in Shakespeare's theatre (and its action) should be tackled and its scope enlarged beyond the so-called intertextuality and materiality of texts, to penetrate the peculiar interplay of written traditions and oral acting skills in the London public playhouses. Taking as a starting point some relevant premises and assumptions in Shakespearean studies (the notion of recollection; the distinction between memorising and remembering within the repertory), the article focuses on the transactions between speech and writing, between literary values and performance practices. It focuses in particular on three topics: declamation and composition around 1590; a short intermezzo about the poets' war and the definition of literary identities around 1600; some considerations on Shakespeare's collaboration with Fletcher for The Two Noble Kinsmen.