Shakespeare through Islamic Worlds

Shakespeare through Islamic Worlds explores the absence of Islam and Muslims from Shakespeares canon, arguing that Islam and Muslim cultures function as an alternate or shadow text in his works. By focusing on the Muslims at the margins of Shakespeares works, Dadabhoy reveals that Islam and its cultures informed the plots, themes, and intellectual investments of his plays. This innovative book will be of interest to scholars working on race, religion, global and cultural exchange, and Islamic, Mediterranean, and Asian studies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 250 pages
Publication date: 18 December 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Shakespeare's omission of Islam and Muslims from his canon is a topic of exploration in Shakespeare through Islamic Worlds. Despite the setting of many of Shakespeare's plays in the Mediterranean region, which was occupied by Muslim empires and cultures, his work lacks direct engagement with the religion and its people. This absence is particularly striking when compared to the prevalence of this topic in the plays of Shakespeare's contemporaries.

In her book, Ambereen Dadabhoy argues that Islam and Muslim cultures serve as an alternate or shadow text in Shakespeare's works. This includes his staged Mediterranean plays, as well as his histories and comedies. By excluding the diverse cultures of the Islamic regimes that inhabited and populated the early modern Mediterranean, Shakespeare creates a Europe and Mediterranean that is free from the presence of non-white, non-European, and non-Christian Others. This portrayal contradicts the reality of the world in which Shakespeare lived.

Dadabhoy's focus is on the Muslims who are marginalized in Shakespeare's works. Through her analysis, she reveals that Islam and its cultures informed the plots.plots, themes, and intellectual investments of Shakespeare's plays. She seeks to bring Islam and Muslims back into the geographies and stories from which Shakespeare had evacuated them. This innovative book will appeal to scholars working on race.

race, religion, global and cultural exchange within Shakespeare, as well as those engaged in Islamic, Mediterranean, and Asian studies in literature and the early modern period.

Dimension: 198 x 129 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032100845