Local and Global Myths in Shakespearean Performance

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Introduction

   • Alexa Alice Joubin, Aneta Mancewicz

   Pages 1-21

3. Myths of Linguistic Transcendence, Authenticity, Universality

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23

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   2. “Europe Speaks Shakespeare”: Karin Beier’s 1996 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Multilingual Performance and the Myth of Shakespeare’s Linguistic Transcendence

      • Bettina Boecker

      Pages 25-39

   3. The Myth of Shakespearean Authenticity: Neoliberalism and Humanistic Shakespeare

      • Marcela Kostihova

      Pages 41-55

   4. Shamanistic Shakespeare: Korea’s Colonization of Hamlet

      • Kevin A. Quarmby

      Pages 57-73

4. Myths of Local Identities and Global Icons

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75

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   2. Ludwig Tieck and the Development of the Romantic Myth of a “German Shakespeare”

      • Dan Venning

      Pages 77-92

   3. Shakespeare Beyond the Trenches: The German Myth of unser Shakespeare in Transnational Perspective

      • Benedict Schofield

      Pages 93-119

   4. “Tupi or Not Tupi, That Is the Question”: Brazilian Mythical Afterlives of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

      • Anna Stegh Camati

      Pages 121-136

5. Myths of Political Shakespeare

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137

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   2. Hamlet and the Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Myth of Interventionist Shakespeare Performance

      • Emily Oliver

      Pages 139-154

   3. Denmark’s a Prison: Appropriating Modern Myths of Hamlet After 1989 in Lin Zhaohua’s Hamulaite and Jan Klata’s H.

      • Saffron Vickers Walkling

      Pages 155-171

   4. Hamlet in Times of War: Two Appropriations of Shakespeare’s Tragedy in Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s

      • Alexandra Portmann

      Pages 173-187

   5. “Come, Let’s Away to Prison”: Local and Global Myths, and “Political Shakespeare” in Twenty-First-Century Russia

      • Aleksandra Sakowska

      Pages 189-209

6. Shakespeare as Myth in Commercial and Popular Culture

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 211-211

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   2. Localizing a Global Myth: Contemporary Film Adaptations of King Lear

      • Kinga Földváry

      Pages 213-227

   3. Shakespeare Sanitized for the Present: Political Myths in Recent Adaptations

      • Frank Widar Brevik

      Pages 229-243

   4. The Myths of Bold Visual and Conservative Verbal Interpretations of Shakespeare on Today’s Japanese Stage

      • Ryuta Minami

      Pages 245-258

   5. Afterword: Shakespeare and Myth

      • Michael Dobson

      Pages 259-265

This collection of scholarly essays offers a new understanding of local and global myths that have been constructed around Shakespeare in theatre, cinema, and television from the nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on a definition of myth as a powerful ideological narrative, Local and Global Myths in Shakespearean Performance examines historical, political, and cultural conditions of Shakespearean performances in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. The first part of this volume offers a theoretical introduction to Shakespeare as myth from a twenty-first century perspective. The second part critically evaluates myths of linguistic transcendence, authenticity, and universality within broader European, neo-liberal, and post-colonial contexts. The study of local identities and global icons in the third part uncovers dynamic relationships between regional, national, and transnational myths of Shakespeare. The fourth part revises persistent narratives concerning a political potential of Shakespeare’s plays in communist and post-communist countries. Finally, part five explores the influence of commercial and popular culture on Shakespeare myths. Michael Dobson’s Afterword concludes the volume by locating Shakespeare within classical mythology and contemporary concerns. 

• appropriation of Shakespeare
• Shakespearean drama and film
• Karin Bier A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Unser Shakespeare
• mythical afterlives of Shakespeare
• Japanese Shakespeare
• Korean Shakespeare
• Shakespeare and world war II
• Berlin Wall

“This ground-breaking collection encompasses Shakespeare performances on stage and screen across the globe, and in a wide range of linguistic and geographical settings. It addresses the varieties of cultural and ideological work that productions, adaptations, versions and translation undertake, and is always alert to the active, participatory role of their audiences in the making of Shakespearean meanings.” (Robert Shaughnessy, Professor of Theatre, Guildford School of Acting University of Surrey, UK)

• University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

  Aneta Mancewicz

• George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

  Alexa Alice Joubin

Aneta Mancewicz is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham, UK. She works on Shakespearean performance, intermediality, and European theatre. Her book publications include Intermedial Shakespeares on European Stages (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and Biedny Hamlet [Poor Hamlet] (2010).

 

Alexa Alice Joubin is Professor of English at George Washington University, USA where she serves as founding Co-director of the Digital Humanities Institute. She held the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Global Shakespeare at Queen Mary University of London and University of Warwick, UK. At Middlebury College, she holds the John M. Kirk, Jr. Chair in Medieval and Renaissance Literature.

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