Table Of ContentTALKING SHAKESPEARE
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Talking Shakespeare
Shakespeare into the
Millennium
Edited by
DEBORAH CARTMELL and MICHAEL SCOTT
pal grave
* Selection, introduction and editorial matter © Deborah Cartmell and
Michael Scott 2001; chapter 1 ©Michael Scott 2001; chapter 2 ©Nigel
Wood 2001; chapter 3 ©Peter Davison 2001; chapter 4 ©Emma Smith
2001; chapter 5 ©Dermot Cavanagh 2001; chapter 6 ©Colin
Chambers 2001; chapter 7 ©Janice Wardle 2001; chapter 8 ©Miles
Thompson and Imelda Whelehan 2001; chapter 9 ©Deborah Cartmell
2001; chapter 10 ©Bernice W. Kliman 2001; chapter 11 ©Gabriel
Egan 2001; chapter 12 ©Kiernan Ryan 2001; chapter 13 Michael].
Collins© 2001; Appendix© Josephine Webb 2001
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the
provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the
terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P OLP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of
this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
First published 2001 by
PALGRAVE
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin's Press
LLC
Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly
Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-0-333-77773-2 ISBN 978-0-333-98574-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-333-98574-8
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Talking Shakespeare: Shakespeare into the millennium I edited by
Deborah Cartmell and Michael Scott.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616---Criticism and interpretation.
I. Cartmell, Deborah. II. Scott, Michael, 1949.
PR2976 .T25 2001
822.3'3-dc21
00-053053
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
To Peter and Sheila Davison
Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Introduction 1
DEBORAH CARTMELL AND MICHAEL SCOTT
I Shakespeare, Theory and Contexts 7
1 Talking Shakespeare 9
MICHAEL Scorr
2 How Does Hamlet End? 24
NICEL WOOD
3 Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Stage: Touring
Practice in Shakespeare's Day 39
PETER DAVISON
4 Studying Shakespeare and His Contemporaries 55
EMMA SMITH
5 Shakespeare and History 70
DERMOT CAVANACH
II Shakespeare and National Identity 83
6 'Home, Sweet Home': Stratford-upon-Avon and the
Making of the Royal Shakespeare Company as
a National Institution 85
COLIN CHAMBERS
III Shakespeare, Performance, Sexuality
and Race 103
7 Twelfth Night: 'One fuce, one voice, one habit, and
two persons!' 105
jANICE WARDLE
vii
V1ll Contents
8 Shakespeare and the Homoerotic 123
MILES THOMPSON AND IMELDA WHELEHAN
9 Shakespeare and Race: Othello l.iii 138
DEBORAH CARTMELL
IV Shakespeare, Film and the Fu.ture 149
10 The Unkindest Cuts: Flashcut Excess in Kenneth
Branagh's Hamlet 151
BERNICE W. KLIMAN
11 Showing Versus Telling: Shakespeare's Ekphraseis,
Visual Absences, and the Cinema 168
GABRIEL EGAN
12 Shakespeare and the Future 187
KIERNAN RYAN
13 Why We Talk Shakespeare 201
J.
MICHAEL COLLINS
Appendix: Bibliography of Shakespeare and
Electronic Sources 213
JOSEPHINE WEBB
Notes and References 221
Notes on Cont:ributors 246
Index 248
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to De Montfort University for supporting the
project and to Palgrave for patience and understanding. We wish
to thank our families for their support throughout.
ix
Introduction
DEBORAH CARTMELL AND MICHAEL SCOTT
Talking Shakespeare, as its tide implies, focuses on the reciprocal
relationship between past and present, the way Shakespeare talks
to us, the ways in which we talk about Shakespeare, and the way
in which Shakespeare, ultimately, is 'all talk'. Indeed, the appro
ach employed throughout the book is a consideration of the ways
in which the past informs the present, as well as how the present
informs the past.
Shakespeare has become, among other things, a great screen
writer, one who can be 'updated' and made relevant to today's
youth (witness Baz Luhrmann's WiUiam Shakespeare's Romeo +
Juliet, 1996, or Gil Junger's Ten Things I Hate About lbu, 1999).
In the latter film, a rewriting of The Taming of the Shrew in the
genre of teen-pic, the black English teacher who scorns feminist
and white male writing as elitist makes an exception when it
comes to Shakespeare: his texts are regarded as truly universal.
Indeed, contact with Shakespeare transforms the lives of the
teenagers in the film, or to quote from Henry V, their brush with
Shakespeare has 'gende[d]' their 'condition'.
This Arnoldian assumption that, no matter how diluted,
Shakespeare is good for us, is interrogated throughout the
book through an exploration of dominant issues and approaches
in Shakespeare studies, ranging from Shakespeare and his con
temporaries to Shakespeare and our contemporaries. The chap
ters in this volume approach the plays from a variety of
perspectives: editing and theory (Nigel Wood), theatrical prac
tices (Peter Davison), Shakespeare and his contemporaries
(Emma Smith), Shakespeare and history (Dermot Cavanagh),
Shakespeare and nationalism (Colin Chambers), twentieth
century performances (Janice Wardle), Shakespeare and the
homoerotic (Miles Thompson and Imelda Whelehan), Shake
speare and race (Deborah Cartmell), Shakespeare and film
(Bernice Kliman and Gabriel Egan, respectively) and Shake
speare and the future (Kiernan Ryan). The book is framed by a
1
