Synopses & Reviews
This volume draws together thirteen important essays on the concept of race in Shakespeare's drama. The authors, who themselves reflect racial and geographical diversity, explore issues of ethnography, politics, religion, identity, nationalism, and the distribution of power in Shakespeare's plays. They write from a variety of perspectives, drawing on Elizabethan and Jacobean historical studies and recent critical theory, attending to performances of the plays, as well as to the text. An introductory essay sets the context for the ensuing chapters, most of which are reprinted from volumes of Shakespeare Survey.
Review
"With illustrations and an introduction by Margo Hendricks (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz), this collection provides an interesting view of the issue over time and should interest students at all levels." Choice"With illustrations and an introduction by Margo Hendricks (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz), this collection provides an interesting view of the issue over time and should interest students at all levels." Choice
Table of Contents
1. Surveying 'race' in Shakespeare Margo Hendricks; 2. A portrait of a Moor Bernard Harris; 3. Elizabethans and foreigners G. K. Hunter; 4. 'Spanish' Othello: the making of Shakespeare's Moor Barbara Everett; 5. Shakespeare and the living dramatist Wole Soyinka; 6. Shakespeare in the trenches Balz Engler; 7. Bowdler and Britannia Michael Dobson; 8. Shakespur and the Jewbill James Shapiro; 9. Wilhelm S and Shylock Laurence Lerner; 10. Cruelty, King Lear and the South Africa Land Act 1913 Martin Orkin; 11. Caliban and Ariel write back Jonathan Bate; 12. Shakespeare and Othellophilia Celia Daileader; 13. 'Delicious Traffick': Racial and religious difference on early modern stages Ania Loomba.