THE ARDEN RESEARCH HANDBOOK OF SHAKESPEARE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Description

The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Social Justice is a wide-ranging, authoritative guide to research on Shakespeare and issues of social justice and arts activism by an international team of leading scholars, directors, arts activists, and educators. Across four sections it explores the relevance and responsibility of art to the real world ? to the significant teaching and learning, performance and practice, theory and economies that not only expand the discussion of literature and theatre, but also open the gates of engagement between the life of the mind and lived experience. The collection draws from noted scholars, writers and practitioners from around the globe to assert the power of art to question, disrupt and re-invigorate both the ties that bind and the barriers that divide us. A series of interviews with theatre practitioners and scholars opens the volume, establishing an initial portfolio of areas for research, exploration, and change. In Section 2 ‘The Practice of Shakespeare and Social Justice’ contributors examine Shakespeare’s place and possibilities in intervening on issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. Section 3 ‘The Performance of Shakespeare and Social Justice’ traces Shakespeare and social justice in multiple global contexts; engaging productions grounded in the politics of Mexico, India, South Africa, China and aspects of Asian politics broadly, this section illuminates the burgeoning field of global production while keeping as a priority the political structures that make advocacy and resistance possible. The last section on ‘Economies of Shakespeare’ describes socio-economic and community issues that come to light in Shakespeare, and their potential to catalyse ongoing discussion and change in respect to wealth, distribution, equity, and humanity. An annotated bibliography provides further guidance to those researching the subject. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Series Preface Acknowledgements Introduction. This is real life: Shakespeare and social justice as a field of play
David Ruiter PART ONE: THE SHAKESPEARE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE INTERVIEWS 1.1 Deconstructing social hierarchies Erin Coulehan Chris Anthony Erica Whyman Arthur L. Little, Jr Ewan Fernie Farah Karim-Cooper PART TWO: THE PRACTICE OF SHAKESPEARE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 2.1 Active Shakespeare: A social justice framework
Ayanna Thompson and Laura Turchi 2.2 Bending toward justice: From Shakespeare’s Black Mediterranean
to August Wilson’s Black Atlantic
Peter Erickson 2.3 Black Hamlet, social justice, and the minds of apartheid
Arthur L. Little, Jr 2.4 Shakespeare and civil rights: Rhetorical universalism
Jason Demeter 2.5 Shakespeare’s Disabled, Disabled Shakespeare
Adelle Hulsmeier 2.6 Social justice in the academy: Reflecting on Shakespeare’s royal women
Christie Carson PART THREE: THE PERFORMANCE OF SHAKESPEARE AND
SOCIAL JUSTICE 3.1 William Shakespeare’s Enrique IV, primera parte: Common
[battle]grounds between medieval England and Mexico’s present
Alfredo Michel Modenessi and Paulina Morales 3.2 King Lear and gender justice in India
Preti Taneja 3.3 Re-enacting Hamlet in Southern Africa
Malcolm Cocks 3.4 ‘Shakespeare in prison’: A South African social justice alternative
Kevin A. Quarmby 3.5 Romeo and Juliet with Chinese characteristics: Questions of usefulness
and engagement in twenty-first-century China
Julie Sanders and Li Jun 3.6 Social justice, social order and political power in NTCC’s adaptation
of Richard III
Chee Keng Lee PART FOUR: THE ECONOMIES OF SHAKESPEARE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 4.1 The empathetic imagination and the dream of equality:
Shakespeare’s ‘poetical justice’
Kiernan Ryan 4.2 The idea of communism in Shakespeare
Peter Holbrook 4.3 ‘Leftward, ho!’: Shakespeare and Lenin in the tempest of
class politics
Jeffrey Butcher 4.4 Social justice and the reign of Regan in Shakespeare’s King Lear
Geraldo U. de Sousa Annotated Bibliography Index