Overview

This book brings together a selection of essays on the reception and dissemination of Shakespeare's plays in England and beyond from the 17th century to the present. Written from the perspective of a nation or cluster of nations in which Shakespeare has been used either to reflect, legitimize or challenge different versions of authoritarian rule, each of the chapters offers a picture of Shakespeare as unwitting commentator on some of the most significant and unsettling political events in Europe and elsewhere.Illustrating and analyzing changing attitudes to Shakespeare and his work in various tyrannical and post-tyrannical contexts in both Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa and South America, the volume provides insights into issues like the role of censorship and self-censorship in the revision and production of Shakespearean material; institutional controls on the dissemination and publication of Shakespeare's work; assumptions and techniques in the staging of his plays; state intervention in the elaboration of a Shakespeare ""canon""; the role of Shakespeare in the construction of identity under tyranny; and the pertinence or otherwise of the subversion/containment paradigm following events such as the collapse of communism and the so-called ""Arab Spring"".

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9781443860604

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Reviews

This volume collects thirteen critical essays that together deliver a fascinating historical account of the reception and appropriations of Shakespeare's plays dealing with the theme of tyranny in Western and Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East. [...] The book offers a solid historical survey of the reception and rewritings of Shakespeare's political plays in world literature, and constitutes an outstanding contribution to the field and a fruitful collection of scholarship for the international theatre community. Safi Mahmoud Mahfouz Al-Balqa Applied University, Jordan Critical Survey, 28:3 (2016)

'This volume collects thirteen critical essays that together deliver a fascinating historical account of the reception and appropriations of Shakespeare's plays dealing with the theme of tyranny in Western and Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East. [...] The book offers a solid historical survey of the reception and rewritings of Shakespeare's political plays in world literature, and constitutes an outstanding contribution to the field and a fruitful collection of scholarship for the international theatre community.'Safi Mahmoud MahfouzAl-Balqa Applied University, JordanCritical Survey, 28:3 (2016)

This volume collects thirteen critical essays that together deliver a fascinating historical account of the reception and appropriations of Shakespeare's plays dealing with the theme of tyranny in Western and Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East. [...] The book offers a solid historical survey of the reception and rewritings of Shakespeare's political plays in world literature, and constitutes an outstanding contribution to the field and a fruitful collection of scholarship for the international theatre community. Safi Mahmoud MahfouzAl-Balqa Applied University, JordanCritical Survey, 28:3 (2016)

Author Information

Keith Gregor teaches English and Comparative Literature at the University of Murcia in Spain. He has published widely on Shakespearean performance and translation and currently heads a government-funded project looking at Shakespeare's presence in Spain in the context of his reception in Europe.

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