This dissertation critiques four stagings of The Merchant of Venice observed in three theatrical cultures of the Anglophone world and argues that engaging productions of this script take into account its self-deconstructive character as one of its most decisive ordering principles. The dissertation draws on Derrida's Deconstruction, stressing that, according to the acknowledged father of the movement, texts do have transcendental traces. It discusses themes such as anti-Semitism versus ethnic intolerance,homosexuality verus somody, carnivalization, and the representation of emotions.

This dissertation critiques four stagings of The Merchant of Venice observed in three theatrical cultures of the Anglophone world and argues that engaging productions of this script take into account its self-deconstructive character as one of its most decisive ordering principles. The dissertation draws on Derrida's Deconstruction, stressing that, according to the acknowledged father of the movement, texts do have transcendental traces. It discusses themes such as anti-Semitism versus ethnic intolerance,homosexuality verus somody, carnivalization, and the representation of emotions.