Wartime Shakespeare : performing narratives of conflict / Amy Lidster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lidster, Amy, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Stage history.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Criticism and interpretation.

War and literature.

War and theater.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 309 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

This is the first book-length, interdisciplinary study of how Shakespeare has been mobilized in performance at times of conflict spanning the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. It sets out a brand-new critical methodology that recognizes how wartime theatre is mediated by networks of production and reception that control its meaning and impact. Performances of Shakespeare's plays, like the texts themselves, do not have single or fixed meanings, and one production context often brings together conflicting agendas and responses. Amy Lidster explains how differing productions of Shakespeare shed light on issues at the heart of conflicts and negotiate concepts such as patriotism, commemoration, and propaganda. With wide-ranging transhistorical coverage, she argues that wartime Shakespeare is defined by its malleability and plural (mis)understandings, which determine its power to shape the experience of war, the political issues at stake during a period of crisis, and the construction of narratives of conflict.

Contents:

Introduction : a history of wartime production and reception

Royal Shakespeare : commemorating conflict during the Seven Years' War (1756-63)

Shakespeare as propaganda : British military performances during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83)

'Patriotic' Shakespeare and dialectics of conflict during the French Revolutionary-Napoleonic wars (1792-1815)

Interlude : nostalgia, nation building and the Russian War (1853-56)

Fragmenting Shakespeare(s) and the First World War (1914-18)

'What we are fighting for' : the state mobilization of Shakespeare during the Second World War (1939-45)

'Anti-war' Shakespeare : just war theory, sponsorship, and the impact of theatre during the Iraq War (2003-11)

Conclusion : wartime Shakespeare - 'a playable surface'.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Oct 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009356053 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.