Citing Shakespeare : The Reinterpretation of Race in Contemporary Literature and Art

This study finds a significant number of contemporary writers and artists who quote our most quotable author for the purpose of reconsidering and reformulating the twin themes of Shakespeare and race. The book examines Shakespeare quotation as a means of revision in the work of Nadine Gordimer, Rita Dove, Derek Walcott, Leon Forrest, Ishmael Reed, Caryl Phillips, Djanet Sears, Fred Wilson, and J. M. Coetzee. In addition, a pivotal chapter discusses Paul Robeson as an earlier figure whose performance of Othello poses the problem of race in Shakespeare and suggests the need for reinterpretation.

Peter Erickson is the author of Patriarchal Structures in Shakespeare’s Drama (1985) and Rewriting Shakespeare, Rewriting Ourselves (1991).  He has co-edited three volumes: Shakespeare’s “Rough Magic” (1985), Early Modern Visual Culture: Representation, Race, and Empire in Renaissance England (2000), and Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s Othello (2005).
 

Introduction: Allusion as Revision * Multicultural Legacies * Allusive Affinities * Othello and/or Venice * Worlds Elsewhere * Acknowledgements * Index Introduction: Allusion as Revision * Multicultural Legacies * Allusive Affinities * Othello and/or Venice * Worlds Elsewhere * Acknowledgements * Index