Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of Conversion

206 Pages·2022·4.401 MB·English

by  Stephen Wittek

EARLY MODERN LITERATURE IN HISTORY
Shakespeare
and the Cultural Politics
of Conversion
Stephen Wittek
Early Modern Literature in History
Series Editors
Cedric C. Brown, Department of English, University of Reading,
Reading, UK
Andrew Hadfield, School of English, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Within the period 1520–1740, this large, very well-established series
withnotableinternationalrepresentationdiscussesmanykindsofwriting,
both within and outside the established canon. The volumes may employ
different theoretical perspectives, but they share an historical awareness
and an interest in seeing their texts in lively negotiation with their own
and successive cultures. This series is approaching a hundred titles on
a variety of subjects including early modern women’s writing; domestic
politics; drama, performance and playhouses; rhetoric; religious conver-
sion; translation; travel and colonial writing; popular culture; the law;
authorship;diplomacy;thecourt;materialculture;childhood;piracy;and
the environment.
Stephen Wittek
Shakespeare
and the Cultural
Politics of Conversion
Stephen Wittek
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
ISSN 2634-5919 ISSN 2634-5927 (electronic)
Early Modern Literature in History
ISBN 978-3-031-11960-6 ISBN 978-3-031-11961-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11961-3
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For Heejung,
So many people on this earth,
and yet I got the perfect one.
Acknowledgements
From 2012 to 2019, I had the unique privilege of working as a research
assistant, then postdoctoral fellow, then project manager, then research
collaborator with the Early Modern Conversions project, an interna-
tional, multidisciplinary research initiative directed by Paul Yachnin at
McGillUniversity.Overthecourseofitsseven-yearrun,theConversions
project brought together more than 150 academic and artistic collabo-
rators from Canada, the United States, England, and Australia to study
theart,spaces,artefacts,socialpractices,politics,theatre,music,andideas
that contributed to the development of conversional thought in the early
modern era. As a participant in this extraordinarily rich and varied intel-
lectual enterprise, I gained a much deeper understanding of the cultures
of early modernity and also began to understand my field of scholarly
expertise—early modern drama—in an entirely new light. This book is a
direct product those insights.
It is therefore a great pleasure to extend my sincere thanks to
Paul and my many other friends and colleagues on the Conversions
project,especiallyAbdulhamitArvas,PatriciaBadir,SarahBeckwith,Carla
Benzan,Jean-FrancoisBernard,StephanieCavanaugh,JulieE.Cumming,
Anthony Dawson, Jane Degenhardt, Marie-Claude Felton, Iain Fenlon,
Simon Goldhill, Douglas Hedley, Paul Hopkins, José R. Jouve-Martin,
Torrance Kirby, Amanda Kellock, Anna Lewton-Brain, Kathleen Perry
Long, José-Juan López-Portillo, Peter Marshall, Peggy McCracken,
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MatthewMilner,StevenMullaney,SusieNapper,CarlaNappi,YeldaNasi-
foglu,VKPreston,MarjorieRubright,BenjaminSchmidt,StéfanSinclair,
Helen Smith, Matteo Soranzo, Allison Stielau, John Sutton, Evelyn B.
Tribble,ValerieTraub,AngelaVanhaelen,MarkVessey,BronwenWilson,
and Carla Zecher. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the many scholarly
gatherings that enabled me to share and develop my work, most notably:
the Early Modern Conversions conferences at McGill University, the
University of Cambridge, and the University of Michigan (2013–2016);
the Politics of Conversion conferences at Warwick University, McGill
University, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE),
and the Newberry Library (2014–2017); the Shakespeare Association of
AmericaconferencesinNewOrleans(2016),LosAngeles(2018),Wash-
ington, DC (2019), and Jacksonville (2022); the Theatres of Conversion
conference at the University of Toronto (2014); the Renaissance Society
ofAmericaconferencesinBerlin(2015);theMovingMindsconferenceat
MacquarieUniversity(2016);theEmotions,Materiality,andTransforma-
tions conference at the University of Western Australia (2016); the Early
Modern Theatre and Conversion conference at the Folger Shakespeare
Library(2016);theHowtodoThingswithMillionsofWordsconference
at the University of British Columbia (2016); the Transforming Bodies
conference at Cornell University (2017); and the Future of Conversion
Studies conference at McGill University (2019). Further thanks to the
ShakespeareandPerformanceResearchTeaminMontrealforinvitingme
to present material from this book for their speaker series in 2022.
In2017,ItookupanewpositionasAssistantProfessorinDepartment
of English at Carnegie Mellon University, a step that brought the benefit
of many excellent colleagues and a wealth of intellectual support. Thanks
in particular to Marian Aguiar, Sharon Dilworth, Jon Klancher, Noémie
Ndiaye, Kathy M. Newman, Richard Purcell, David Shumway, Kristina
Straub,AndreeaDeciuRitivoi,ChristopherWarren,JeffreyWilliams,and
James Wynn. Working with all of you has been a real pleasure. This book
would have turned out entirely differently without the benefit of your
guidance, patience, and encouragement.
Many thanks as well to the series editors, Cedric C. Brown and
Andrew Hadfield for their support and guidance, to Sharon Janet, Eileen
Srebernik, Ananda Kumar Mariappan, and Imogen Higgins at Palgrave
for production assistance, to Lindsay Glick and Elizabeth Dieterich
for help with proofreading, to Gauri Maria Kinshuk for a gorgeous
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
cover design, to Heather Dubnick for indexing, and to the anonymous
reviewers for thoughtful feedback.
On a more personal note, I must also express infinite gratitude for the
love and support of my mother, Coleen Wittek, my wife, Heejung Yoon,
and my two children, William Wittek and Lily Wittek. You guys are the
best!
Contents
1 Introduction: Turning into Other Things 1
2 What We Talk About When We Talk About Conversion 23
3 Conversion, Coercion, and Persuasion in The Taming
of the Shrew 57
4 The Politics of Conversion in Henry IV, Part 1 79
5 Conversional Transactions in The Merchant of Venice 97
6 Citizenship and Conversion in Othello 117
7 Colonialism and Conversion in The Tempest 133
Epilogue: Conversion, Ambivalence, Interrogation,
Culture-Making 155
Appendix I: Summary of the Meanings for “Conversion”
That Were Active in Early Modernity (OED) 161
Appendix II: Conversion, Convert ~, and Convertite
in Shakespeare’s Works 165
Bibliography 173
Index 191
xi