Character Networks and Affective Flows: A Genealogy of Algorithmic Dramaturgy in Shakespeare’s Theatre

This article argues that Shakespeare's theatre anticipates the logics of algorithmic dramaturgy, staging networked relations and affective flows centuries before digital computation. While scholars have examined Shakespearean form and affect, and digital humanities research has mapped character networks, few studies integrate these approaches or theorise them as proto-algorithmic structures. Focusing on As You Like It, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice, the article analyses how Shakespeare stages algorithmic processes at two levels: character networks and the dynamic circulation of affect within them. Reading networks and affect together as interlinked systems, it shows how his dramaturgy enacts patterns of branching, recursion, and optimisation associated with digital platforms. By situating Shakespeare within the genealogy of algorithmic culture, the study addresses a critical gap and contributes to Shakespeare studies and performance theory, presenting the early modern stage as a site where procedural logics and human feeling were already intertwined.