Shylock and other infamous characters

In some of the internet sites that I have visited to learn more about The Merchant of Venice I have found that although Shylock is not the the title character of the play, he certainly is more talked about.  I believe it is because he is so unfair in his treatment of Antonio that he fills the reader with a sense of righteous indignation.  But even so I thought it was interesting that he would controversial enough to spark so much debate.  I also thought it was interesting what Professor Burton said about how much the reading of this play has changed since the Holocaust.  With these two things in mind I looked for some scholarly input and found kind of a weird paper discussing Shylock and Shakespeare in the 21st century (Shocked Shylock: Neoliberalism, Postcommunism, and 21st-Century Shakespeare).  I found the ideas in this article were original and very interesting.  Here is the the reference for the article:

Marcela, Kostihova.  Shocked Shylock: Neoliberalism, Postcommunism, and 21st-Century Shakespeare.  Early English Studies vol. 4 p 1-22. 2011.