Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: Shifting Centres and Peripheries in the Nineteenth Century

Description

Charting the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries in the 19th century, this opens up an area of global Shakespeare studies that has received little attention to date. With case studies exploring the earliest translations of Hamlet into Danish; the first translation of Macbeth and the differing translations of Hamlet into Swedish; adaptations into Finnish; Kierkegaard’s re-working of King Lear, and the reception of the African-American actor Ira Aldridge’s performances in Stockholm as Othello and Shylock, it will appeal to all those interested in the reception of Shakespeare and its relationship to the political and social conditions. The volume intervenes in the current discussion of global Shakespeare and more recent concepts like ‘rhizome’, which challenge the notion of an Anglocentric model of ‘centre’ versus ‘periphery’. It offers a new assessment of these notions, revealing how the dissemination of Shakespeare is determined by a series of local and frequently interlocking centres and peripheries, such as the Finnish relation to Russia or the Norwegian relation with Sweden, rather than a matter of influence from the English Cultural Sphere. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The first Danish production of Hamlet (1813): A theatrical representation of a national crisis Annelis Kuhlmann 2 Geijer’s Macbeth – Page, stage and the seeds of time Kiki Lindell and Kent Hägglund 3 Cold maids and dead men: Gender in translation and transition in Hamlet Cecilia Lindskog Whiteley 4 The poetics of adaptation and politics of domestication: Macbeth and J. F. Lagervall’s Ruunulinna Jyrki Nummi, Eeva-Liisa Bastman and Erika Laamanen 5 Søren Kierkegaard’s adaptation of King Lear James Newlin 6 ‘A blot on Swedish hospitality’: Ira Aldridge’s visit to Stockholm in 1857 Per Sivefors 7 Shakespeare’s legacy and Aleksis Kivi: Rethinking Kivi’s drama Karkurit [The Fugitives] Riitta Pohjola-Skarp 8 Anne Charlotte Leffler’s Shakespeare: The perils of stardom and everyday life Lynn R. Wilkinson 9 Knut Hamsun’s criticism of Shakespeare Martin Humpál Afterword: Towards a regional methodology of culture Alexa Alice Joubin Appendix: A timeline of significant Shakespeare-related events in the Nordic countries before 1900 Index