Strictly Po-Mo: Postmodern Shakespeares and Phrases in Dispute

Shakespeare Survey

ABSTRACT: Shakespeare, the 17th century Universal and Humanist Bardic figure has sown his transnational seeds throughout time and space through the ample usage of appropriations in the literary sphere. While Alexander Huang posits that “the idea that Shakespeare belongs to the world has become a cliché” (Huang, 2006), Linda Hutcheon pinpoints that Shakespeare offer a heteroglossic understanding of the postmodernist concern to grasp the what (Forms), Who? Why? (Adapters), How? (Audiences), Where? When? (Contexts)(Hutcheon, 2006). The fabula, that is, the story or the plot, being the googol of any text has opened up the avenues for Shakespeare’s plays to be appropriated and adapted in a palimpsest literary, media, games, cartoons, and musical comedies on a multi-global arena. Shakespearean appropriations have spread their tentacles to Mauritius, Canada, Italy, Bulgaria, South Africa, USA, U.K, Japan, Caribbean islands, France, Czechoslovakia, Tunisia, India to name a few. Though appropriations demand a lot of effort in preserving the 17th aura, gist and zeitgeist, its complexity brings about polyphonic receptions according to the context, race, age, language, culture, politics, religion and society. Keywords: Shakespeare, humanist, transnational, heteroglossic, palimpsest, appropriation, polyphonic, zeitgeist, gist, postmodernist.

College Literature, 2007

2014

Postmodernist understanding of femininity allows for new approaches of Shakespeare’s plays. Cinematography offered two such samples: in 1996 with Baz Luhrmann’s version of Romeo+Juliet, and in 2005 with BBC series of ShakespeaRE-Told, The Taming of the Shrew, directed by David Richards. Both movies interlace femininity with the will to power, but in a system permeated by humour, kitsch and carnival. The conflict of sexes and families becomes a chance to perform a satirical show. Shakespeare proves to be an inexhaustible transcultural and transfashion author.

College Literature, 2004

2018

This study examines re-writings of Shakespeare in British drama, Edward Bond’s Lear (1971), Arnold Wesker’s The Merchant (1976) and Howard Barker’s Gertrude-The Cry (2002) in relation to the socio-political, historical and cultural backgrounds of the periods in which they were generated. These works are considered both as commentary to the events of their historical background, and as plays that question Shakespeare’s literary and cultural status. Thus, it is asserted that re-writing has a significant function in terms of creating alternative ideas to the ways in which critical issues are discussed in the canonical texts and their political and ideological foundations. In the Introduction, re-writing’s association with adaptation theory and intertextuality as a postmodern practice is considered. Additionally, the development of Shakespearean re-writing, its reception, and its functions are discussed. Within the scope of these ideas, it is concluded that Shakespeare’s works are questioned, and their ideological aspects are criticised through reworkings. In the first chapter, Edward Bond’s Lear is examined as a Marxist-Socialist appropriation written against Shakespeare’s uncritical attitude to issues like class inequality and violence in King Lear (1606). Considering the problems of the 1970s’ Britain such as unequal class structure, student and worker’s riots, inefficiency of leftist politicians, violence triggered by Stalinism and the Vietnam War, it is discussed that Bond’s appropriation is not only a Shakespeare re-writing but also a play that sheds light on the concerns of its period. In the second chapter, Arnold Wesker’s The Merchant is analysed in terms of identity politics as the play criticises Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (1605) for its antisemitic discourse. Accordingly, Wesker’s re-writing, as a play produced in the post-Holocaust context, is correlated with some events in its historical background such as Arab-Israeli conflict, Six Day War and Yom Kippur War. In the third chapter, Howard Barker’s Gertrude-The Cry is discussed as a response to the representation of the woman figure in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1600) in terms of sexual and gender politics. Considering the issues of the play such as individual will and sexual freedom in relation to the regulations of New Labour as the ruling party in Britain in the 2000s, Barker’s work is also analysed as a criticism of its historical context. In the Conclusion, it is revealed that re-writings of Shakespeare in British Drama reflect theoretical, cultural, socio-political and ideological aspects of the periods in which they are created, and they also adopt a critical attitude to Shakespeare’s works. In the light of the plays examined thematically and technically in this study, it is discussed that, Shakespeare’s works evolve in a way that reflects the significant events and concerns of subsequent ages. Keywords Shakespeare, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Edward Bond, Arnold Wesker, Howard Barker, Lear, The Merchant, Gertrude-The Cry, re-writing, adaptation

SEMINAR # 1: Shakespeare on Film: Theory and Practice ///// Shakespeare has been screened—projected on the silver screen and filtered by various ideologies—since 1899. We will examine the adaptation of Shakespeare as a historical and colonial practice and conclude with contemporary case studies. Theories covered include postcolonial criticism, disability studies, cultural materialism, gender theories, critical race studies, film and auteur theories, and performance theories. //// SEMINAR # 2: Global Shakespeare //// What is the secret of Shakespeare’s wide appeal? Has Shakespeare always been a cultural hero? The course considers how ideologies about race, gender, and class shape Shakespeare’s plays and how world cultures shape the plays’ afterlives. The course introduces students to the English-subtitled theater works and films of directors from Kuwait, France, South Africa, Japan, Germany, Singapore, China, New Zealand, Brazil, the U.K., and U.S. All videos have English subtitles.