Shakespeare and Geek Culture

Description

From fantasy and sci-fi to graphic novels, from boy scouts to board games, from blockbuster films to the cult of theatre, Shakespeare is everywhere in popular culture. Where there is popular culture there are fans and nerds and geeks. The essays in this collection on Shakespeare and Geek Culture take an innovative approach to the study of Shakespeare's cultural presences, situating his works, his image and his brand to locate and explore the nature of that geekiness that, the authors argue, is a vital but unrecognized feature of the world of those who enjoy and are obsessed by Shakespeare, whether they are scholars, film fans, theatre-goers or members of legions of other groupings in which Shakespeare plays his part. Working at the intersections of a wide range of fields ? including fan studies and film analysis, cultural studies and fantasy/sci-fi theory – the authors demonstrate how the particularities of the connection between Shakespeare and geek culture generate new insights into the plays, poems and their larger cultural legacy in the 21st century. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Introduction Andrew James Hartley with Peter Holland Notes PART ONE Geek Culture and Fiction 1 Shakespeare, Tolkien and Geeking Out Tolkien, Shakespeare and the battle for fantasy The inevitability and uncertainty of adaptation Beyond the Klingon Hamlet Would the real geeks please stand up? Ownership and adaptation Notes Works cited 2 ‘I Opened a Door; That Is All’ Neil Gaiman’s Decidedly Human Shakespeare in The Sandman Notes Works cited 3 Shakespeare Unfocusedin Time Problems of Memory and Anachronism in Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters Notes Works cited 4 May the Bard Be with You Shakespeare’s Cultural Capital Investment in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Adaptations Note Works cited 5 Not Now The Present in Shakespeare’s Past and Ooo’s Future1 Ooo’s future approaches The inaccessible Jack Cade ‘You’re just in time’ Notes Works cited PART TWO Geek Culture and the Shakespeare Sandbox 6 ‘Let’s Kill Claudius in the Church!’ Fan Fiction and Wish Fulfilment in Ryan North’s To Be or Not to Be and Romeo and/or Juliet Notes Works cited 7 Hiddleston–Shakespeare–Coriolanus, or Rhizomatic Crossings in Fanfic What if? Rhizomes, not roots Searching for Tom More of and more from Coriolanus Shakespearean slash, or becoming fannish Deterritorializations Note Works cited 8 The Bard is Dead, Long Live the Bard Kill Shakespeare and the Popular Death of the Author Notes Works cited 9 ‘There Lies the Substance’ Richard II and the Adorkable Paratext1 Notes Works cited 10 On Eating Paper and Drinking Ink Critiques of higher education Love’s Labour’s Lost Notes Works cited PART THREE Pastimes, Gaming and Shakespeare 11 Shakespeare and the Renaissance of Board Games Appropriation and Geek Culture Kill Shakespeare Council of Verona Munchkin Shakespeare Shakespeare Conclusion Notes Works cited 12 The Bard of Boys’ Life Shakespeare and the Construction of American Boyhood Is scouting culture geek culture? Boys’ Life magazine, Shakespeare and feral boyhood The boy crisis Boys’ Life magazine, Shakespeare and geeky boyhood Conclusion Notes Works cited 13 Some Women Just Want to Watch the World Burn Gendered Villainy in Shakespeare and Geek Culture Notes Works cited 14 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as Shakespearean Theatre Notes Works cited PART FOUR Film, Theatre and Geek Culture 15 Liberating the Geek in Recent Shakespeare on Film Notes Works cited 16 Whedonesque Shakespeare and Hyperdiegetic Casting Notes Works cited 17 Worst. Lear. Ever. Early Modern Drama and Geek Hermeneutics Notes Works cited 18 ‘It Was Geek to Me’ Shakespeare, Performance and Geek Cultures Coda Notes Works cited INDEX