Skip to main content
World Shakespeare Bibliography home

138,701 entries in:

Title:
"The Myth of Total Shakespeare: Filmic Adaptation and Posthuman Collaboration"
Author:
Lewis, Seth.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Uses theories of posthumanism to study interplay between text and film in cinematic versions of Shakespeare. Proposes “that the textual discourses surrounding Shakespeare’s life and works are reconstructed through posthuman interventions in the cinematic representation of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.” English summary, online. 

View Full Entry
Title:
"Kabbalah, 'Dybbuks', and the Religious Posthuman in the Shakespearean Worlds of 'Twin Peaks'"
Author:
Starks, Lisa S..
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Examines Shakespearean influences on 1990s television series Twin Peaks, focusing on show’s postsecular and posthuman elements. Explores how show draws on nonhuman entities from Shakespeare, including angels, demons, and spirits, who exist alongside human-centered world, with result of challenging traditional Western ideas of reality and existence. English summary, online.

View Full Entry
Title:
"The Readers of 17th-Century English Manuscript Commonplace Book Hesperides, or the Muses' Garden"
Author:
Hao, Tianhu.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Discusses historical readers of seventeenth-century commonplace book, Hesperides, or the Muses’ Garden, which includes Shakespearan extracts. Readers include seventeenth-century stationer Humphrey Moseley, Victorian scholar James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps and an anonymous late eighteenth-century reader. Considers readers' use of commonplace book as linguistic aid and as "reference library.” English summary, 197. 

View Full Entry
Title:
"The Medievalism of Emotions in King Lear"
Author:
Czarnowus, Anna.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Examines negotiation of medieval and early modern notions of affect in King Lear. Surveys shifting understanding of emotions from medieval to early modern period, arguing representation of embodied emotions in King Lear speaks to medieval views of affect. English summary, online.

View Full Entry
Title:
"The Inverted Initiation Rituals in Shakespeare with a Special Emphasis on Hamlet"
Author:
Wicher, Andrzej.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Applies Vladimir Propp anthropological framework of “the inverted ritual” to Hamlet. Focuses on inversion of sacrificial ritual, where formerly “passive and obedient victim suddenly rebels” (as exemplified by Ophelia); inversion of initiatory ritual, where respected character who initiates another is revealed to be a villain (exemplified by Claudius); and inversion of matrimonial ritual, where devoted spouse or lover is revealed to be malicious and unpredictable (exemplified by Hamlet). English summary, online.

View Full Entry
Title:
"'How can you say to me I am a King?': New Historicism and its (Re)interpretations of the Design of Kingly Figures in Shakespeare's History Plays"
Author:
Dale, James.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Explores how New Historicism as critical movement transformed scholarly attitudes towards Shakespeare’s history plays, focusing on conceptions of kingship and monarchical power. Deploys Stephen Greenblatt’s notion of “subversion” and “containment” in relation to kingly power to offer reading of Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. English summary, online.

View Full Entry
Title:
"Individualization and Oedipalization in Reza Servati's Adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth: An Expressionist Reworking"
Author:
Javidshad, Mahdi.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Discusses Iranian director Reza Servati’s adaptation of Macbeth, noting how Servati minimal script cut source text to focus on characters’ psychological distress and both their individualism and everyman qualities, while also drawing out play’s Oedipal undertones. Describes adaptation as “expressionist reworking” of Shakespeare’s play. English summary, online.

View Full Entry
Title:
"The Shakespeare Brand in Contemporary 'Fair Verona'"
Author:
Oggiano, Eleonora.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Studies how contemporary city of Verona perpetuates Shakespeare as global cultural icon by marketing Romeo and Juliet in different tourism contexts. Examines civic, cultural and narrative spaces built on story of young Veronese lovers. English summary, online.

View Full Entry
Title:
"Crossings with Jatra: Bengali Folk-theatre Elements in a Transcultural Representation of Lady Macbeth"
Author:
Dutta Gupta, Aabrita.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Discusses significance of Lady Macbeth in jatra, eastern Indian Bengali folk-theatre tradition. Focuses on Vikram Iyenger’s theatre-dance production Crossings: Exploring the Facets of Lady Macbeth (2004), which features women performing four different aspects of Lady Macbeth through medium of Indian classical dance. Analyzes transgressive quality of all-female Indian theatre-dance performances, and shows how Iyenger’s production connects Lady Macbeth to women from Indian myth, such as Putana (demoness) and Shakti (sacred feminine). English summary, online.

View Full Entry
Title:
"From Social Justice to Metaphor: The Whitening of Othello in the Russian Imagination"
Author:
Khomenko, Natalia.
Type:
Journal Article
Year:
2021
Annotation:

Discusses changes to performances Othello on Soviet and Russian stages from early twentieth century to present. Notes frequency of performances of Othello on early Soviet stages, ascribing play’s popularity to its “ideological utility.” Argues play’s representation of racial tension served as allegory of West’s harmful racism in contrast with “Soviet egalitarianism.” Analyzes more recent productions of Othello in Russia which portray Othello as white character and downplay theme of race. Explains reasons for shift from Soviet productions which focus on race (arguing use of blackface in performances prevented considerations of actual racial tensions in Soviet Union) to contemporary Russian productions that ignore racial themes (where Othello’s otherness is appropriated by ethnically Slavic actors and characters). English summary, online.

View Full Entry