Citing Shakespeare: The Reinterpretation of Race in Contemporary Literature and Art

216 Pages·2007·1.98 MB·English

by  Peter Erickson (auth.)

C S
ITING HAKESPEARE
The Reinterpretation of Race in
Contemporary Literature and Art
Peter Erickson
Interview material and excerpts from Rita Dove’s poems reprinted
by permission of Rita Dove.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC:
Excerpts from COLLECTED POEMS 1948–1984 by Derek
Walcott. © 1986 by Derek Walcott.
Excerpts from MIDSUMMER by Derek Walcott. © 1984 by Derek
Walcott.
Excerpts from OMEROS by Derek Walcott. © 1990 by Derek
Walcott.
Excerpts from TIEPOLO’S HOUND by Derek Walcott. © 2000
by Derek Walcott.
Excerpts from Derek Walcott’s Collected Poems,Midsummer, and
Omerosalso reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber, Ltd.
CITINGSHAKESPEARE:THEREINTERPRETATIONOFRACEIN
CONTEMPORARYLITERATUREANDART
©Peter Erickson, 2007
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-7054-1
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brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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ISBN 978-1-4039-7055-8 ISBN 978-1-137-06009-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-06009-9
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C
ONTENTS
List of Illustrations v
Preface vii
Introduction: Allusion as Revision 1
1 “Not Shakespeare”: Acts of Quotation in
Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story 11
2 Rita Dove’s Shakespeares 21
3 Neither Prospero nor Caliban: Derek Walcott’s
Revaluations of Shakespearean Fluency 41
4 “Yet you can quote Shakespeare, at the drop of
a pin”: Shakespearean Riffs in Leon Forrest’s
Divine Days 61
5 Paul Robeson’s Othello and the Question of
Multicultural Shakespeare 77
6 Contextualizing Othello: Ishmael Reed, Caryl
Phillips, and Djanet Sears 103
iv Contents
7 Respeaking Othello in Fred Wilson’s Speak of
Me as I Am 119
8 “It sounds like a quotation”: J. M. Coetzee
and the Power of Shakespearean Allusion 151
Epilogue: Making Changes 167
Acknowledgments 171
Notes 175
Index 209
L I
IST OF LLUSTRATIONS
Figure 7.1 Fred Wilson, Banners of Melchior Barthel
figures (photographs on scrim), 2003. 122
Figure 7.2 Baldassare Longhena, Tomb for Doge
Giovanni Pesaro, S. Maria Gloriosa
dei Frari, Venice, 1669. Detail of base
of monument, showing four sculptures
by Melchior Barthel. 123
Figure 7.3 Fred Wilson, For Pawns in a Larger
Game, 2003. 125
Figure 7.4 Fred Wilson, Chandelier Mori, 2003,
with view of Drip, Drop, Plop
in next room. 126
Figure 7.5 Fred Wilson, The Wanderer, 2003. 127
Figure 7.6 Fred Wilson, Drip, Drop, Plop, 2001,
on left; Untitled (four photographs),
2003, on right. 129
Figure 7.7 Fred Wilson, Turbulence II, 2003. 135
Figure 7.8 Fred Wilson, Faith’s Fate, 2003. 137

Preface
This book challenges and expands our conception of
Shakespeare by asking: How does the meaning of
Shakespeare change when quoted in the context of con-
temporary literature and art? Shakespeare is our most
quotable author, and everyone knows how to dredge up
at least some bits of Shakespeare, whether with pride, joc-
ularity, or nervous apology. From the standpoint of an
African American listener trying to identify a quotation,
the rule of thumb in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty (2005) is:
“When in doubt, say Shakespeare.” Quoting Shakespeare
is a cultural reflex as irresistible, and as American, as apple
pie. What happens when we quote Shakespeare? What
does Shakespeare say for us? Which version of America
does Shakespearean quotation express?
Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (2004) gives Shakespeare
the last word by channeling him. Her novel’s final line
recites King Lear’s “I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.” The
effect is to elevate Shakespeare to the level of the Bible,
the main character’s explicit resource, and thus to link
Shakespeare and the Bible as the two great books that
form the foundation of American culture. Against this cel-
ebratory reaffirmation, I suggest that writers quote
Shakespeare for many different reasons and that a compre-
hensive survey reveals a much more variegated, complicated
view of Shakespeare.
viii Preface
Citing Shakespeare is double-edged. It means to invoke
Shakespeare’s quotability as an all-purpose authoritative
source. But it can also mean to summon with a view to
rendering judgment by engaging in critical evaluation. This
second meaning prevents simple homage, and hence knocks
off its tracks the idea of an imagined community whose
symbolic belonging is based on feel-good common access
to a Shakespeare who has said it all in the form of perma-
nent, timeless, and universal insights.
My argument is that in the hands of contemporary writ-
ers and visual artists, Shakespearean allusion relocates
Shakespeare in a new environment that shifts, twists,
torques, wrenches, and alters the meaning of his words. We
need to learn to register and to relish these swerves. When
this change is actively pursued as an artistic strategy, the
result is a revisionary rewriting that places Shakespearean
language in critical perspective.
The interest becomes seeing, in high-resolution and
zoom-in detail, the various ways individual artists carry out
this process of revision. The ultimate suspense in specific
cases is: Where does this revision lead? What is the out-
come, and what are the consequences? For my project, the
consequences concern race. The goal is to show how the
conjunction of Shakespeare and race in the context of con-
temporary culture shakes up the relationship between these
two terms and thereby performs a salient act of reinterpre-
tation.
The sheer number of writers engaged in revision is
impressive. To convey the range of approaches to the shared
focus on Shakespeare and race, this book emphasizes bound-
ary crossing. It crosses historical periods by focusing on jux-
tapositions and tensions between Shakespeare’s Renaissance
Preface ix
and our own contemporary moment. It crosses geographical
lines and racial categories by bringing together black authors
from different locations in the United States, Canada, the
Caribbean, and England (considered as Caryl Phillips’s pri-
mary residence), as well as by including a cross-racial mix
through two white South African authors and myself as
a white American critic. It crosses generic and disciplinary
categories by encompassing the full literary range of poetry,
fiction, and drama, and also by combining literature and
visual art.
In connecting the key themes of quotation and race, this
book proposes a methodological crossing that combines the
traditional literary critical topic of allusion with the vexed
political issue of race. Full understanding of the interaction
between these two themes requires an investigation of the
mechanics of allusion that is just as sophisticated as our
analysis of the concept of race. Finally, the overall reassess-
ment tests the value of critical multiculturalism: Can the
revisionary activity described here make a political contri-
bution to our wider vision of America? This is the ultimate
boundary crossing: to show that the reach of literature and
art is not limited to an isolated cultural sphere but extends
into the realm of our political life.
When you enter the atrium of Fred Wilson’s exhibition
Speak of Me as I Am at the 2003 Venice Biennale, you see,
tucked in the niche directly ahead, a black servant named
The Wanderer. The servant holds out an empty tray. The
real offering is the top-heavy globe head held up, Atlas-
like, by his small body. The globe, which has replaced his
human face, is turned so that Africa faces outward for our
viewing. This face of Africa is not unlike the colonialist’s
dream anticipated in the Africa-focused globes in Holbein’s