Native Shakespeares : Indigenous Appropriations on a Global Stage

258 Pages·2008·1.02 MB·English

by  Craig Dionne and Parmita Kapadia

NATIVE SHAKESPEARES
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Native Shakespeares
Indigenous Appropriations on a Global Stage
Edited by
CRAIG DIONNE
Eastern Michigan University, USA
and
PARMITA KAPADIA
Northern Kentucky University, USA
© Craig Dionne and Parmita Kapadia 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Craig Dionne and Parmita Kapadia have asserted their moral right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Gower House Suite 420
Croft Road 101 Cherry Street
Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405
Hampshire GU11 3HR USA
England
Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Native Shakespeares
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 – Adaptations – History and criticism 2. Shakespeare,
William, 1564–1616 – Translations – History and criticism 3. Shakespeare, William,
1564–1616 – Appreciation – Foreign countries
I. Dionne, Craig II. Kapadia, Parmita
822.3’3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Native Shakespeares: indigenous appropriations on a global stage / edited by Craig Dionne
and Parmita Kapadia.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6296-9 (alk. paper)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Adaptations—History and criticism. 2. Shakespeare,
William, 1564–1616—Translations—History and criticism. 3. Shakespeare, William, 1564–
1616—Appreciation—Foreign countries. I. Dionne, Craig. II. Kapadia, Parmita.
PR2880.A1.N38 2008
822.3’3—dc22
2007052206
ISBN: 978-0-7546-6296-9
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Notes on Contributors viii
Introduction: Native Shakespeares: Indigenous Appropriations on a
Global Stage
Craig Dionne and Parmita Kapadia 1
Part 1 Lowly Subjects: Transposing Tradition
1 The Face in the Mirror: Joyce’s Ulysses and the Lookingglass
Shakespeare
Thomas Cartelli 19
2 Commonplace Literacy and the Colonial Scene: The Case of
Carriacou’s Shakespeare Mas
Craig Dionne 37
3 “The Forms of Things Unknown”: Richard Wright and Stephen
Henderson’s Quiet Appropriation
John Carpenter 57
4 The Fooler Fooled: Salman Rushdie’s Hybrid Revision of
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Through “Yorick”
Santiago Rodríguez Guerrero-Strachan and Ana Sáez Hidalgo 73
Part 2 Local Productions: Nationalism and Hegemony From the
Third Space
5 Jatra Shakespeare: Indigenous Indian Theater and the
Postcolonial Stage
Parmita Kapadia 91
6 Nationalizing the Bard: Québécois Adaptations of Shakespeare
Since the Quiet Revolution
Jennifer Drouin 105
7 An Aboriginal As You Like It: Staging Reconciliation in a
Drama of Desire
Maureen McDonnell 123
8 Movers and Losers: Shakespeare in Charge and Shakespeare
Behind Bars
Niels Herold 153
vi Native Shakespeares
Part 3 Translating Across: Between the National and the Cultural
9 Shakespeare and Transculturation: Aimé Céésssaaaiiirrreee’’’sss A Tempest
Pier PaoloFrassinelli 173
10 Twin Obligations in Solomon Plaatje’s Diphosho-phosho
Ameer Sohrawardy 187
11 In Fair Havana, Where We Lay Our Scene: Romeo and Juliet in Cuba
Donna Woodford-Gormley 201
12 “I am no Othello. I am a lie”: Shakespeare’s Moor and the Post-Exotic
in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North
Atef Laouyene 213
Afterword: The Location of Shakespeare
Jyotsna G. Singh 233
Index 241
List of Illustrations
1 “Are You Challenging Me?” from Finding Forrester. Prof. Robert
Crawford played by F. Murray Abraham. Directed by Gus Van Sant.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures, 2000. 54
2 LL’’OOfffificciieerr dduu RRhhiinn---PPPiiieeerrrrrreee BBBooouuurrrgggaaauuulllttt (((llleeeaaadddeeerrr ooofff ttthhheee RRRRaaaasssssssseeeemmmmbbbblllleeeemmmmeeeennnntttt
pour l’indépendance nationale [[RRIINN]])),, HHoorraattiioo--RReennéé LLéévveessqquuee
(founder of the MMoouuvveemmeenntt SSoouuvveerraaiinneettéé--AAssssoocciiaattiioonn [[[MMMSSSAAA]]] aaannnddd lllaaattteeerrr
the PPaarrttii QQuuéébbééccooiiss [[PPQQ]]))),,, aaannnddd HHHaaammmllleeettt---QQQuuuééébbbeeeccc,,, ttthhheee ppprrriiinnnccciiipppaaalll nnnaaatttiiiooonnnaaallliiisssttt
figures in Robert Gurik’s Hamlet, prince du Québec. Courtesy of
Robert Gurik. 113
3 DDuurriinngg tthhee ssttoorrmm sscceennee,, tthhee ttwwoo SShhaakkeessppeeaarreess hhuuddddllee uunnddeerr ““a
typically British umbrella”and then “jump into, with eloquence and
historical attention, […] the long narration of Clarence’s dream
(authentically excerpted from the great William’sRICHARD III),”
oblivious that they are being drowned, like Clarence, by “cat pee”
that the Fool rains down on them. (Ronfard, Lear 46–8, 50; my
translation, italics in original). 111144
4 Publicity photograph of Deborah Mailman in Company B’s
As You Like It. Directed by Neil Armfield (1999). Photograher:
Julian Watt. Courtesy of Christine Bradburn and Company B,
Sydney, Australia. 124
5 Celebration scene of Company B’s As You Like It. Directed by
Neil Armfield (1999). Photographer: Heidrun Löhr. Courtesy of
Company B, Sydney, Australia. 127
6 Kristine Hutton and Deborah Mailman in Company B’s As You Like It.
Directed by Neil Armfield (1999). Photographer: Heidrun Löhr.
Courtesy of Company B, Sydney, Australia. 127
7 Kristine Hutton and Deborah Mailman in Company B’s
As You Like It. Directed by Neil Armfield (1999). Photographer:
Heidrun Löhr. Courtesy of Company B, Sydney, Australia. 139
8 Cabaret-style head shot of Deborah Mailman in Company B’s
As You Like It. Directed by Neil Armfield (1999). Photograher:
Julian Watt. Courtesy of Company B, Sydney, Australia. 144
Notes on Contributors
John Carpenter is an Assistant Professor of English at Indian River College. His
recent scholarship focuses upon cultural interpretations of music in early modern
drama, and his current publications include “Placing Thomas Deloney,” in JNT: The
Journal of Narrative Theory, and “Fulfilling the Book: Shakespeare, Music, Identity,
and Kwame Dawes’ ‘Requiem’” in The Humanities Review.
Thomas Cartelli is author of Repositioning Shakespeare: National Formations,
Postcolonial Appropriations (1999), Marlowe, Shakespeare, and the Economy of
Theatrical Experience (1991), and most recently co-author, with Katherine Rowe, of
New Wave Shakespeare on Screen (2007). He teaches at Muhlenberg College where
he is NEH Professor of Humanities.
Craig Dionne has published on Shakespeare in popular culture, history of the early
modern underworld, rogues and class history. He has co-edited two books that
showcase inter and cross-disciplinary perspectives. Disciplining English: Alternative
Histories and Critical Perspectives (SUNY 2002), and Rogues and Early Modern
English Culture (University of Michigan Press, 2004). He is editor of JNT: Journal
of Narrative Theory.
Jennifer Drouin is a postdoctoral fellow with the SSHRC Major Collaborative
Research Initiatives “Making Publics” project at McGill University. Her research
focuses on Shakespeare, Québécois adaptations, and early modern gender and
sexuality. Her articles on these topics appear or are forthcoming in Theatre Research
in Canada, Borrowers and Lenders, and the volume Shakespeare Re-Dressed:
Cross-Gender Casting in Contemporary Performance.
Niels Herold’s essays on Shakespeare pedagogy and historicism have appeared
in JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory, Shakespeare Yearbook, Shakespeare and
the Classroom, CEA, and Shakespeare Quarterly. He is an Associate Professor of
English at Oakland University, where he teaches Shakespeare and Renaissance
Literature. He is currently at work on an essay about Shakespeare Behind Bars and
the early modern performance of repentence.
Pier Paolo Frassinelli is a Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand
in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published several articles in the areas of
Early Modern and Postcolonial Studies and has recently written the Introduction
to a new edition of C.L.R. James’s Notes on Dialectic. His current projects include
a co-edited volume entitled Traversing Transnationalism (with David Watson and
Ronit Fainman-Frenkel) and an anthology of writings on Shakespeare by Caribbean
authors, which he is co-editing with Shane Graham.
Notes on Contributors ix
Santiago Rodríguez Guerrero-Strachan teaches Postcolonial Literature at the
University of Valladolid (Spain). He is interested in Comparative Literature, African
and Caribbean authors, Exile and Rushdie.
Ana Sáez Hidalgo teaches Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at the
University of Valladolid (Spain). Her main research interests are Comparative
Literature, Translation and Rewriting and other forms of Cultural exchange.
Parmita Kapadia has done extensive work on postcolonial Shakespeare in India.
She is Associate Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University where she
specializes in Shakespeare studies and postcolonial literatures. Her current projects
include a co-edited volume entitled Transforming Diaspora (with Robin Field) and
a writing handbook for the Shakespeare classroom.
Atef Laouyene is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is
currently finalizing his dissertation entitled “The Post-Exotic Arab: Orientalist
Dystopias in Contemporary Postcolonial Fiction.” He has a forthcoming article,
“Canadian Gothic and the Work of Ghosting in Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall on
Your Knees.”
Maureen McDonnell is an Assistant Professor at Eastern Connecticut State
University, where she teaches courses in early modern literature, women’s studies,
and women’s literature. She received her joint Ph.D. in English and Women’s Studies
at the University of Michigan; her dissertation explored the cultural dimensions of
global Shakespearean drama and performance. Presently, she is engaged in research
on performance studies and early modern drama.
Jyotsna G. Singh is Professor of English as Michigan State University. She is the
author of Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues: “Discoveries of India in the
Language of Colonialism,” and The Weyward Sisters: Shakespeare and Feminist
Politics. She has also co-edited Travel Knowledge: European “Discoveries” in the
Early Modern Period.
Ameer Sohrawardy is a doctoral candidate in the English department at Rutgers
University. His interests include literatures of the early modern period and postcolonial
theory. His dissertation examines the role of the intermediary in facilitating Anglo-
Ottoman interactions in 16th and 17th century drama and travel writing.
Donna Woodford-Gormley is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the English
program at New Mexico Highlands University. She earned her B.A. in English and
Spanish literature at California State University, Northridge and her M.A. and Ph.D.
in English at Washington University in St. Louis. Her publications include a book,
Understanding King Lear, and several articles on Shakespeare, early modern women
writers, and other topics in British literature.