1st Edition

Shakespeare�s Asian Journeys Critical Encounters, Cultural Geographies, and the Politics of Travel

    292 Pages
    by Routledge

    292 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume gives Asia’s Shakespeares the critical, theoretical, and political space they demand, offering rich, alternative ways of thinking about Asia, Shakespeare, and Asian Shakespeare based on Asian experiences and histories. Challenging and supplementing the dominant critical and theoretical structures that determine Shakespeare studies today, close analysis of Shakespeare’s Asian journeys, critical encounters, cultural geographies, and the political complexions of these negotiations reveal perspectives different to the European. Exploring what Shakespeare has done to Asia along with what Asia has done with Shakespeare, this book demonstrates how Shakespeare helps articulate Asianess, unfolding Asia’s past, reflecting Asia’s present, and projecting Asia’s future. This is achieved by forgoing the myth of the Bard’s universality, bypassing the authenticity test, avoiding merely descriptive or even ethnographic accounts, and using caution when applying Western theoretical frameworks. Many of the productions studied in this volume are brought to critical attention for the first time, offering new methodologies and approaches across disciplines including history, philosophy, sociology, geopolitics, religion, postcolonial studies, psychology, translation theory, film studies, and others. The volume explores a range of examples, from exquisite productions infused with ancient aesthetic traditions to popular teen manga and television drama, from state-dictated appropriations to radical political commentaries in areas including Japan, India, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines. This book goes beyond a showcasing of Asian adaptations in various languages, styles, and theatre traditions, and beyond introductory essays intended to help an unknowing audience appreciate Asian performances, developing a more inflected interpretative dialogue with other areas of Shakespeare studies.

    CONTENTS



    List of Figures



    Acknowledgments





    Preface: On Memorials



    Dennis Kennedy





    Shakespeare’s Asian Journeys: An Introduction



    Bi-qi Beatrice Lei





    Part I: Re-Defining the Field of Asian Shakespeare



    Chapter One: The Augmentation of the Indies



    Judy Celine Ick





    Chapter Two: Shakespeare’s Long Journey to Japan



    Kawachi Yoshiko





    Chapter Three: Unraveling Hamlet’s Spiritual and Sexual Journeys



    Poonam Trivedi





    Chapter Four: Shakespeare’s Asian Journey or "White Mask, Black Handkerchief"



    Ted Motohashi





    Part II: Shakespeare and Asian Politics



    Chapter Five: "I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel"



    Bi-qi Beatrice Lei





    Chapter Six: The Great General and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme



    Shen Lin





    Chapter Seven: Political Shakespeare in Korea



    Kim Kang





    Chapter Eight: Hijacking Shakespeare



    Melani Budianta





    Part III: Shakespeare and Asian Identity



    Chapter Nine: Shakespeare as Cultural Capital



    Ricardo G. Abad





    Chapter Ten: Makyung Titis Sakti



    Nurul Farhana Low bt Abdullah and A.S. Hardy Shafii





    Chapter Eleven: A Journeying Shakespeare, or Adjourning Shakespeare



    Brooke A. Carlson





    Part IV: Asian Shakespeare and Pop Culture



    Chapter Twelve: Pleasurable Errors and Erroneous Pleasures



    Paromita Chakravarti





    Chapter Thirteen: "The Very Basics for All of Us"



    Minami Ryuta





    List of Contributors



    Index of Shakespeare’s Plays



    Subject Index

    Biography

    Bi-qi Beatrice Lei is a research fellow at the Research Center for Digital Humanities of National Taiwan University, Taiwan.





    Judy Celine Ick is Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature of the University of the Philippines and a part-time faculty member of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department of Ateneo De Manila University, Philippines.





    Poonam Trivedi is Associate Professor in English at Indraprastha College, University of Delhi, India.