Romancing the Bard

Publication year
1999
Pages
47-64
Comment

Shakespeare appears most often in two subgenres, Regencies and historical romances. [...] I argue that Shakespeare in contemporary American romance serves the needs of (a) authors, by bolstering their status and offering the private pleasures of erudition; (b) characters, by modeling strategies for creating both emotional distance and cultural connections; and (c) readers, by at once reinforcing and challenging the culturally conservative codes of the romance. (47)

You may also be interested in Osborne's website dedicated to Shakespeare in romance.