SoSe 20: S-Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures: Postcolonial Shakespeare
Stephan Laqué
Comments
Shakespeare was writing at a time of colonial expansion, at a time when new contacts with foreign countries, foreign ethnicities and foreign philosophies were emerging and giving rise to mixed and shifting responses. Shakespeare’s plays register these historical influences and perceptions and they have come to serve as a productive laboratory for the development of postcolonial theories. Wariness of anachronism has not got in the way of postcolonial productions and rewritings of Shakespeare – and it should not get in the way of interpretation. We will be discussing such seminal concepts as race, the nation, hybridity, mimikry and globalisation.
Please purchase the following texts: The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Anthony and Cleopatra, The Tempest. Please purchase print editions of these texts (preferably Arden or the Norton Shakespeare). The first text we will be discussing is The Merchant of Venice.
close12 Class schedule
Regular appointments