Bruce Smith, English professor and influential William Shakespeare scholar

Bruce Smith’s career as a scholar of William Shakespeare began with a map.

While an undergraduate at Tulane University, Smith was accepted into a study abroad program in England, presenting him with a choice: Study psychology at the University of Hull, or explore English at the University of Birmingham.

“I got out a map and saw that Birmingham was 100 miles from London and Hull was over 200 miles from London, so I chose Birmingham,” Smith said. “As it turned out, that was a key decision because the University of Birmingham has the Shakespeare Institute.”

The university was also close to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s place of birth. There, Smith attended numerous performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company, soon enraptured with the way staged productions viscerally engaged the senses.

“People who think about the power of Shakespeare think about power of language. I don’t deny that but, I’m interested in seeing how the power of language is actually cuing the bodies on stage to do certain things and the bodies in the audience to feel certain things,” Smith said. “It’s a different way of knowing Shakespeare than reading text.”

This perspective shaped his long career, comprising nine influential books and numerous articles, which explored novel, often physical, ways of understanding the famed English playwright.

Smith, Professor Emeritus of English at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on June 18. He was 78.

Sound and fury, signifying much

Smith was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He received a bachelor’s degree in English from Tulane University in 1968. He completed his master’s in 1971 and then his PhD at the University of Rochester, New York in 1973.

He began his first teaching position at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1972, achieving tenure in 1987. He remained at Georgetown until 2003, when he was recruited to join the English department at USC Dornsife. He stayed at USC until his retirement in 2024 as Dean’s Professor of English and Theatre.

In one of his most influential works, The Acoustic World of Early Modern England: Attending to the O-Factor, published in 1999, Smith laid out for the reader how Shakespeare’s world may have sounded. He detailed the acoustics of the Globe Theatre, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, how words from the scripts would have been pronounced, and what noises might have been heard regularly throughout the city and countryside.

“This groundbreaking work has been highly regarded for its innovative approach, and it continues to have a significant impact on both Shakespeare studies and the broader field of sensory history,” says Rebecca Lemon, divisional dean for the humanities and professor of English, comparative literature and history.

He expanded his evaluation of Shakespearean senses in 2008 with The Key of Green, a meditation on the color green, widely used in homes and clothing during the Renaissance and often cited in Shakespeare’s writing. In 2009, his book Phenomenal Shakespeare looked at how the plays engage a viewer’s whole body.

What piece of work is a man

Smith also offered a fresh perspective on sexuality in Shakespeare. His 1991 book, Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England: A Cultural Poetics, explored same-sex attraction in Shakespeare’s writing and in the broader culture of the era. It was a pioneering study that opened up new avenues of research at the intersections of gender, literature and history, says Lemon.

One of his books in particular has lasting, personal resonance for readers, says Heather James, professor of English and comparative literature.

“I learned of its extraordinary importance to many young, gay scholars firsthand at conferences throughout the years. A young scholar would come up to Bruce and say, quietly, ‘Thank you for writing that book.’ At one point I asked Bruce which one they meant, and he responded, ‘It’s always Shakespeare and Masculinity,’” says James. This work, published in 2000, looked at how male identity is shaped and performed in Shakespeare plays.

Thou shalt like an airy spirit go

Smith was also a prolific editor, overseeing many works, including the 2016 edition of The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare, which brought together the expertise of nearly 300 scholars from around the world to examine four centuries of Shakespeare’s influence.

It was one of many projects that aimed to engage both fellow scholars and lay Shakespeare fans. His books were written for general audiences, and he often gave public lectures and led acting workshops. Through the Bread Loaf School of English, hosted at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he spent summers instructing high school teachers. It was through this program that Smith fell in love with Santa Fe, eventually making the city his home.

Smith was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the inaugural International Globe Fellowship at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre.

In addition to his research and writing, Smith was a devoted teacher. It was his commitment to training graduate students that led USC to recruit him to Los Angeles as a senior scholar, and his students have gone on to make significant contributions to Shakespeare studies in their own right, says Lemon.

Smith also taught undergraduates, leading classes in which students acted out the plays and put together video, dance or other kinetic interpretations of the texts. “It’s hard to convey the joy he took in art, experimentation and innovative conversation. It’s impossible to overstate the generosity and enthusiasm he gave to his students,” says James.

Smith is survived by his husband and partner of 38 years, Gordon Davis, his brother Kendall Smith, two nieces, and their children.