The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument that someone other than
William Shakespeare of
Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works traditionally attributed to him. Proponents (called "anti-Stratfordians") say that Shakespeare was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason did not want or could not accept public credit. Although the idea has attracted much public interest, all but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a
fringe belief, and for the most part disregard it except to rebut or disparage the claims. Despite the scholarly consensus, the controversy has spawned a vast body of literature, and more than 70 authorship candidates have been proposed, including
Francis Bacon, the
6th Earl of Derby,
Christopher Marlowe, and the
17th Earl of Oxford. In 2010
James S. Shapiro surveyed the topic in Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?, in which he criticised academia for ignoring the issue and effectively surrendering the field to anti-Stratfordians, marking the first time a recognised Shakespeare scholar has devoted a book to the topic. Filmmaker
Roland Emmerich's next movie, Anonymous, starring
Rhys Ifans and
Vanessa Redgrave, portrays Oxford as the real author. (more...)
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