Repositioning Shakespeare: National Formations, Postcolonial Appropriations

What becomes of Shakespeare's work in its translation from early modern playtext to colonialist pretext to postcolonial target? Repositioning Shakespeareexplores how Shakespeare is appropriated or repositioned in contemporary, postcolonial cultures as they seek to renegotiate his standing as a privileged site of authority. Rather than read specific Shakespearean texts, Thomas Cartelli considers texts and events that are positioned in relation to the Bard: polemical essays by Walt Whitman; the 1849 Astor Place Riot; novels by Michelle Cliff, Nadine Gordimer and Robert Stone; and films by James Ivory and Gus Van Sant. Original and engaging,Repositioning Shakespeareprovides new ways of understanding the relevance of Shakespeare--a sixteenth-century man--to modern life.