Bring yourself back online,Old Bill: Westworld ’s media histories,or six degrees of separation from Shakespeare

Abstract

This article explores the polysemous intertextuality of Westworld, an example of ‘complex television’, and focuses particularly on its Shakespearean coordinates. In this futuristic show about sentient androids who quote Shakespeare is a deep web of connections to other Shakespeare adaptations in film, digital cultures, and popular music. Through the perspectives of fan studies and media studies, the article argues that what unfolds out of the show’s discourses and those of its fans, who engage with it through digital platforms and technologies, is a micro media history of Shakespeare. In turn, the show advances an understanding of Shakespeare as posthuman.