Shakespeare and Appropriation

<p>The vitality of our culture is still often measured by the status Shakespeare has within it. Contemporary readers and writers continue to exploit Shakespeare's cultural afterlife in a vivid and creative way. This fascinating collection of original essays shows how writers' efforts to imitate, contradict, compete with, and reproduce Shakespeare keep him in the cultural conversation.<br> The essays:<br> * analyze the methods and motives of Shakespearean appropriation<br> * investigate theoretically the return of the repressed author in discussions of Shakespeare's cultural function<br> * put into dialogue theoretical and literary responses to Shakespeare's cultural authority<br> * analyze works ranging from nineteenth century to the present, and genres ranging from poetry and the novel to Disney movies.</p> List of illustrations List of contributors General editor's preface Acknowledgements Introduction, Christy Desmet, Part 1: Appropriation in Theory, 1. Alas, Poor Shakespeare! I Knew Him Well Ivo Kamps 2. Entry on Q Terence Hawkes 3. Romancing the Bard Laurie E. Osbourne 4. Moor or Less?: The Surveillance of Othello , Calcutta 1848 Sudipto Chatterjee and Jyotsana G. Singh Part 2: Appropriation in Practice 5. Remembering King Lear in Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres Caroline Cakebread 6. Signifyin' on The Tempest in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day James R. Andreas, Sr. 7. Accommodating the Virago: Nineteenth-Century Representations of Lady Macbeth Georgianna Ziegler 8. The Shakespeareanization of Robert Browning Robert Sawyer 9. The Displaced Body of Desire: Sexuality in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet Lisa S. Starks 10. Disney Cites Shakespeare: The Limits of Appropriation Richard Finkelstein 11. Afterword: The Incredible Shrinking Bard Gary Taylor Further Reading, Matt Kozusko Bibliography Index