1st Edition

Repositioning Shakespeare National Formations, Postcolonial Appropriations

By Thomas Cartelli Copyright 1999
    248 Pages
    by Routledge

    246 Pages
    by Routledge

    Repositioning Shakespeare offers an original assessment of a broad range of texts and cultural events that appropriate Shakespeare. Examining these materials within the context of 'the nation' in a postcolonial era, Thomas Cartelli considers:
    * essays by Walt Whitman
    * the nineteenth-century play, 'Jack Cade'
    * novels by Aphra Behn, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Michelle Cliff, Tayeb Salih, Nadine Gordimer and Robert Stone
    * the 1849 Astor Place Riot
    Cartelli places particular emphasis on redefining the 'postcolonial' in order to find a place for America. In doing so, Repositioning Shakespeare makes a considerable contribution to the continuing debate about the uses we make of Shakespeare.

    INTRODUCTION; Part 1 DEMOCRATIC VISTAS; Chapter 1 NATIVISM, NATIONALISM, AND THE COMMON MAN IN AMERICAN CONSTRUCTIONS OF SHAKESPEARE; Chapter 2 SHAKESPEARE AT HULL HOUSE: JANE ADDAMS'S “A MODERN LEAR” AND THE 1894 PULLMAN STRIKE; Chapter 3 SHAKESPEARE, 1916: CALIBAN BY THE YELLOW SANDS AND THE NEW DRAMAS OF DEMOCRACY; Part 2 PROSPERO'S BOOKS; Chapter 4 PROSPERO IN AFRICA: THE TEMPEST AS COLONIALIST TEXT AND PRETEXT; Chapter 5 AFTER THE TEMPEST : SHAKESPEARE, POSTCOLONIALITY, AND MICHELLE CLIFF'S NEW, NEW WORLD MIRANDA; Part 3 THE OTHELLO COMPLEX; Chapter 6 ENSLAVING THE MOOR: OTHELLO, OROONOKO, AND THE RECUPERATION OF INTRACTABILITY; Chapter 7 “LIKE OTHELLO”: TAYEB SALIH'S SEASON OF MIGRATION AND POSTCOLONIAL SELF-FASHIONING; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited INDEX;

    Biography

    Thomas Cartelli is Professor of English at Muhlenberg College. He is the author of Marlowe, Shakespeare, and the Economy of Theatrical Experience, which was awarded the 1991 Hoffman Prize for Distinguished Publication on Christopher Marlowe.

    'Repositioning Shakespeare is a very well researched book, full of insight both into Shakespeare, American and world-wide politics and social affairs and, most of all, the postcolonial issue. For anyone engaged in postcolonial studies it is of great use and it is certainly a pleasure to read.' - Magnus Ankarsjö, Modern Languages