Shakespearean Adaptation, Race and Memory in the New World

Shakespeare's plays have a significant absence of black female characters, but they still play central symbolic roles in articulating definitions of love, beauty, chastity, femininity, and civic and social standing. This book argues that modern Shakespearean adaptation is a primary means for materializing black women's often elusive presence in the plays, serving as a vital staging place for historical and political inquiry into racial formation in Shakespeare's world and our own.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 179 pages
Publication date: 25 August 2021
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

As readers delve into the second half-century of the modern critical exploration of blackness and black characters in Renaissance drama, it has become a widely acknowledged fact that Shakespeare's plays remarkably lack the presence of black female characters. Despite this physical absence, however, these characters still hold significant symbolic roles in shaping definitions of love, beauty, chastity, femininity, and civic and social standing, often invoked as the antithesis to "fair" women. Building upon this recognition of black women's simultaneous physical absence and imaginative presence, this book posits that modern Shakespearean adaptations serve as a primary vehicle for materializing their often elusive presence within the plays, functioning as a vital platform for historical and political inquiry into racial formation in Shakespeare's world and our own. Spanning geographically across North America and the Caribbean, this book encompasses a diverse range of artistic mediums, including film and fiction, alongside drama, in its examination of remade versions of Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Taming of the Shrew. With its focus on Shakespearean adaptation, race, and memory in the New World, this work will appeal to scholars engaged in the fields of early modern race studies, gender and performance, and women in Renaissance drama.

Weight: 259g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030506827
Edition number: 1st ed. 2020