Hugh Grady has championed the return of aesthetics to the study of Shakespeare. What he does not wish to lose is the connection between politics and aesthetics that is the subject of his book, Shakespeare and Impure Aesthetics (2009) that reveals the influence of Adorno and Benjamin, in particular. In a significant departure from Kantian aesthetics, Grady wants to preserve the formal aspects of Shakespeare, but he does not want to discard the politics. His aim is to show how Shakespearean texts incorporate radical moments that fly in the face of what might otherwise be regarded as conservative aesthetic structures, and that this is a feature of all great art. Drakakis explores the various ways in which Shakespearean tragedy—especially Hamlet, Macbeth, and Coriolanus—responds to this claim, both historically and in terms of the presentist project that Grady has been instrumental in pursuing.