Announcements
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.358 Sunday, 4 August 2019
From: Hardy M. Cook <
Date: August 4, 2019 at 8:39:18 AM EDT
Subject: Shakespeare Pro on Sale in August
https://www.facebook.com/groups/playshakespeare/permalink/10158574511574256?sfns=mo
Shakespeare Pro for iPhone & iPad & Mac & Android is ON SALE for the month of August for BacktoSchool! Get it now!
Apple: http://bit.ly/shakesproapp
Mac: http://bit.ly/shakespearemac
Android: http://bit.ly/shakesandroid
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.357 Sunday, 4 August 2019
From: John Cox <
Date: August 3, 2019 at 2:02:22 PM EDT
Subject: David Bevington (1931 -2019)
I am sorry to report the death on August 2nd of David Bevington, prolific author and editor and teacher of many on this list. He suffered a heart attack in June and was able to continue working until shortly before his death. He is most widely known for his edition of Shakespeare’s complete works, for which he wrote humane and accessible introductions and notes. In his first critical study, From Mankind to Marlowe, he described a direct relationship between the structure of early Tudor plays and the make-up of itinerant acting troupes. He wrote at length on Tudor drama and politics and on the language of gesture in Tudor plays. He was unfailingly kind and encouraging of younger scholars and actively interested in dramatic production, as well as criticism. A memorial service for him will be held at the University of Chicago sometime this fall.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.352 Tuesday, 30 July 2019
From: David Schalkwyk <
Date: July 30, 2019 at 7:56:33 AM EDT
Subject: Directorless Richard II--Rose Playhouse, Bankside, London in August
Anərkē Shakespeare
presents
Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Richard II
Tuesday 13 August - Saturday 17 August, 7.30pm and Sunday 18 August, 2.00pm
The Rose Playhouse, 56 Park Street, London, SE1 9AR
+44 (0)20 7261 9565
To buy tickets https://www.trybooking.com/uk/book/event?eid=7205&
PRESS RELEASE
From 13th-18th August The Rose Playhouse, Bankside hosts the return season of Anərkē Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of King Richard II (in association with the Centre for Global Shakespeare at Queen Mary University of London).
Anərkē Shakespeare is a new, innovative theatre company that combines creative practice with scholarly research, inspired by the working conditions in which Shakespeare conceived his plays. Shakespeare’s “myriad minded” text is brought to life by a diverse, gender-blind, actor-led ensemble in an intensively short rehearsal period, without a director!
Shakespeare would not have known what a theatrical director was. Early modern theatre was a process of joint decision making in a collective enterprise. The actors staged and performed the plays. Together.
Anərkē Shakespeare creates raw, fast-paced theatre: all discoveries and decisions are made on the floor by the actors in relationship to each other and the text without the imposition of a single conceptual vision. We are committed to changing the way theatre is created and received, sharing Shakespeare’s text in new and democratically accessible ways, to empower the audience’s own critical engagement.
This timely rendition of Richard II, with its warring internal factions, troubles over Ireland, anxiety to keep England ‘Great’ and crucial deposition of the king, reflects the unstable political machinations of our time, in the historical venue of the Rose Theatre, site of the first Elizabethan theatre on Bankside, London. Preserving the foundations of the early modern playhouse, it is a liminal space—a palimpsest of place and time, like the company and the production.
The audience, together with the cast, will work imagination to bring to life the Sceptred Isle of England, in this film noir, naked-framed perspective of RICHARD THE SECOND – Shakespeare’s poetic masterpiece: a play of mirrors, balanced and hinged, in repeated chiasmus—heroes and anti-heroes, solitariness and community, substance and shadow.
In the hollow crown of a King keeps death his court, and inside this emptiness we find ourselves, facing Richard in his mirror. A haunting, rendering of the insatiable desire for power, the fragility of family, the dangers of vain and self-conceit and the tension between solipsism and shared grief.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.348 Monday, 29 July 2019
From: Hardy M. Cook <
Date: July 29, 2019 at 11:05:02 AM EDT
Subject: Extension of WSC2021 Deadline
The deadline for Seminar and Workshop proposals (only) for the 2021 World Shakespeare Congress to be held in Singapore has been extended until 15th September 2019. To submit a proposal for a seminar or workshop, please follow the instructions on this webpage http://wsc2021.org/proposals.html#0overview
You may wish to know that the Trustees of the ISA have adopted the following statement on diversity and inclusion:
As befits a global academic organization, the International Shakespeare Association is committed to principles of diversity and inclusion for all, as well as of academic freedom and freedom of expression. It believes that the world-wide exchange and engagement with the works of Shakespeare that the ISA promotes leads to greater understanding of and respect for different cultures and societies and the place of the individual within them.
The Trustees have also issued the following statement about WSC 2021:
The announcement that the next World Shakespeare Congress in 2021 will be held in Singapore has raised concern on the grounds that Singapore has legislation against gay men, specifically against gay male sex acts. The Trustees of the International Shakespeare Association do not in any way endorse the Singaporean law and hope that the opportunity of the Congress, through scholarly discussion of all forms of sexuality in relation to Shakespeare, will add to the more open attitude of younger Singaporeans towards homosexuality, identified in a study published lately in CNN Asia.
At the same time, the criminalization of sex acts is in part a legacy of British rule in Singapore and a consequence of colonialism and also part of the history of Singapore as an independent state. The Trustees note that there is no law in Singapore criminalizing gender identity or sexual orientation. There is also an active gay scene in the country, something that will, we hope, also contribute to a change in the law. The government also licenses the annual Pink Dot event for LGBTQ+ people, attended in 2018 by 20,000 people. The ISA recognizes that people in different countries have different forms of relationship to their governments and laws. Many countries in the world and/or states within countries have discriminatory legislation or policies against groups of their citizens and others, including, for instance, the United States. The ISA Trustees are unable to identify a country that is non-discriminatory in all respects and that is willing and able to host a conference of Shakespeare scholars. We note that in Singapore, all demonstrations, whatever their cause, are banned and illegal unless licensed by the government. However, we anticipate no hindrance to our historic commitments to intellectual freedom and cross-cultural exchange. The ISA stands behind individuals’ academic freedom at the WSC. The WSC is always an opportunity for the open discussion of such matters in relation to Shakespeare and WSC 2021 will be no exception. The International Shakespeare Association eagerly looks forward to WSC 2021 in Singapore.
With best wishes,
ISA Committee
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.343 Saturday, 20 July 2019
From: Louise Geddes <
Date: July 19, 2019 at 4:31:44 PM EDT
Subject: CFP Shakespeare Between Performance and Appropriation
Calls for Abstracts: Shakespeare Between Performance and Appropriation
Editors: Louise Geddes, Kathryn Vomero Santos, and Geoffrey Way
This collection seeks to situate Shakespeare at the intersection of performance and appropriation. Traditionally bound to the idea of an iterated, or interpreted, literary artifact, performance has, in the twenty-first century, begun to manifest as a compound of media and increasingly shares common ground with the discourses of appropriation, a discipline that more critically accommodates a dialogic relationship between a work and its iteration(s). Because of the media by which they are separately manifest, performance and appropriation are often treated as separate disciplines. However, the methodologies that drive both inquiries are remarkably similar. Both disciplines theorize the dialogue between a work and its subsequent iterations, and both seek to understand how their processes are subject to cultural, technological, and representational pressures. This collection aims to understand Shakespeare at this convergence point between performance and appropriation, and invites essays that consider the theoretical, cultural, and pedagogical implications of the resulting intersections and tensions.
The meeting of these two fields raise a number of methodological questions: can performance’s iterative identity clarify the ways in which we use the terms “adaptation” and “appropriation”? Is all performance necessarily adaptive? What is the place of the text in adaptive or appropriative performance, and how are these limits defined? Is adaptation, or appropriation, as a process, fundamentally ephemeral, in much the same way that we envision performance? We encourage work that approaches appropriative acts as iterative rather than derivative, and that considers how debates over the dialogics of appropriation might shape our understanding of Shakespearean performance. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Embodied or revived stagings
- Shakespeare in translation
- Musical theatre
- Celebrity performance
- Staging spaces
- Cross-gendered or color-conscious casting practices
- Site specific or immersive theatre as appropriative acts
- Original practices as appropriation
- Embodied acts, such as violence, as appropriation
- Politics and ethics of reception
- Teaching with performance and appropriation
Abstracts should be no more than 250 words in length, and accompanied by a 50-word biography, due December 1, 2019. Please send abstracts to
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.301 Thursday, 20 June 2019
From: Sarah Enloe <
Date: June 19, 2019 at 1:05:31 PM EDT
Subject: Tenth Blackfriars Conference
Blackfriars Conference 2019 Keynote Speakers
The 10th Blackfriars Conference celebrates a dynamic slate of attendees
.
Staunton, Va. – The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) will host the tenth Blackfriars Conference in Staunton, Virginia October 22-27. This conference features a diverse array of speakers who all engage in producing or studying Shakespeare. This year the line-up includes an artistic director, a University President, an Oxford Don, an exciting young professor from New York, and the conference’s first ever hand-selected emerging scholar.
ASC’s biennial Blackfriars Conference gathers scholars from around the world to hear lectures, see plays, and learn about early modern theatre. The event takes place in Staunton, VA, during the height of the Shenandoah Valley’s famed fall colors. ASC’s Education and Research department hosts Shakespeareans, scholars, and practitioners alike to explore Shakespeare both in the study and on the stage, often finding ways for these two worlds to collaborate. Past conferences featured notable scholars and practitioners such as Bill Rauch, Andrew Gurr, Tina Packer, Tiffany Stern, and Scott Kaiser.
In 2019, this packed and enriching five-day convention will welcome a diverse slate of speakers. Irina Brook, the Artistic Director of the Théâtre National of Nice; Katherine Rowe, President of William and Mary University and rising President of the Shakespeare Association of America; Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College; David Sterling Brown, renowned scholar and Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Binghamton; and Katherine Walker, guest lecturer at Mount Holyoke College, all join the Blackfriars Conference alongside many other plenary papers, colloquies, and special events. In addition, conference attendees will celebrate the work of acclaimed scholar and professor Roslyn L. Knutson as their 2019 Blackfriars Conference Honoree.
“More than any previous conference the 2019 gathering will invite conversation that aims to expand the way we think about Shakespeare,” says Sarah Enloe, ASC’s Director of Education, “We will hear about Shakespeare in translation, Shakespeare adaptation, Shakespeare as provocateur, and we will ask about Shakespeare’s future as we examine his past.”
The Blackfriars Conference is open for registration until October 22 - but if you register by October 1, you are also guaranteed tickets to performances at the Blackfriars Playhouse. Registration is open for Colloquies until June 30, or you can submit an application for a Staging Session through July.
Visit the American Shakespeare Center website for more information, www.americanshakespearecenter.com.
Sarah Enloe
Director of Education
American Shakespeare Center
The American Shakespeare Center recovers the joy and accessibility of
Shakespeare's theatre, language, and humanity by exploring the English
Renaissance stage and its practices through performance and education.
<https://www.facebook.com/americanshakespearecenter>
<https://instagram.com/americanshakespearecenter/>
<http://ascdangerousdreams.tumblr.com/> <https://twitter.com/shakespearectr>
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.296 Monday, 17 June 2019
From: Neema Parvini <
Date: June 17, 2019 at 7:52:55 AM EDT
Subject: Shakespeare and Morality Symposium, 21st June
This is a final reminder that you can register (for free) here to attend this event, which is part of the launch of the new Surrey Shakespeare Centre: https://sa1.seatadvisor.com/sabo/servlets/TicketRequest?eventId=1279125&presenter=TLUOS&venue=&event=&version
Shakespeare and Morality Symposium, 21st June
Ivy Arts Centre, Guildford School of Acting
Hosted by the Surrey Shakespeare Centre
9am Registration
All sessions consist of two 25-minute papers followed by 25 minutes for Q&A and discussion.
Neema Parvini (Surrey), Shakespeare and Morality – Some Opening Remarks
Patrick Gray (Durham), Shakespeare and Morality – Some More Opening Remarks
Coffee
Elizabeth Sandis (Shakespeare Institute), Dangerous pastimes at Oxford: How did the city, the university, and the students view Shakespeare’s works? (And could they even view them?)
Jessica Chiba (Royal Holloway), 'Nor could she moralize his wanton sight': Shakespeare and the Moral Law
Lunch
Amanda Finch (Ulster), Isabella/Isabel: representations of ideal and complex victims in Measure for Measure at Donmar Warehouse.
Darren Tunstall (Guildford School of Acting), Authority and Honest Signalling in Macbeth
Tea
Gilad Gutman (Tel-Aviv), “Show Us to Be Watchers”: Relativizing Morality through Demonology
Jeffrey Wilson (Harvard), Tragic Excess in Hamlet
Neema Parvini
Senior Lecturer in English
University of Surrey
, Guildford
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.295 Monday, 17 June 2019
From: Hardy M. Cook <
Date: Monday, June 17, 2019
Subject: Declining Membership Numbers
Dear Subscribers,
Of late our subscriptions numbers have been falling. We have a very healthy following on Facebook, but those who are receiving distributions of our Newsletter has declined.
If you know anyone who might be interested in becoming a member of SHAKSPER (including present and past students), would you send them to me at
Thank you,
Hardy
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.288 Tuesday, 11 June 2019
From: Hardy M. Cook <
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Subject: That Time of the Year Plus
Dear Subscribers,
This is the time of the year when people graduate from academic programs, move from one place to another, retire, and the like. As I result, I get a number of bounced e-mails from accounts that are no longer active on a virtual daily basis.
Please, if you will be leaving or changing your e-mail account, let me know in advance so that I can make the appropriate adjustments to the membership distribution list.
On another matter, I have been getting requests from members, some long-term members, to be removed from the list because they object to particular threads or to particular posters. Now, I realize that I am the person with almost thirty years of experience running this academic list, but I am always open to suggestions. If anyone has any thoughts on this matter, please let me know in a PRIVATE e-mail, one that is intended for me only and not to be distributed.
Hardy
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.271 Friday, 3 June 2019
From: Hardy M. Cook <
Date: Monday, June 3, 2019
Subject: Shakespeare on Screen in the Digital Era
http://www.ircl.cnrs.fr/francais/sos2019.htm
Shakespeare on Screen in the Digital Era: The Montpellier Congress
Dates: Thursday 26, Friday 27, Saturday 28 September 2019
Venue: Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, site Saint Charles (France)
Conference coordinators
Sarah Hatchuel (GRIC, EA 4314, Université Le Havre Normandie)
Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin (IRCL, UMR5186, CNRS/Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3)
Advisory board
Sylvaine Bataille, Université de Rouen Normandie, France
Victoria Bladen, University of Queensland, Australia
Claire Cornillon, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, RIRRA21, France
Christy Desmet, University of Georgia, USA
José Ramón Díaz, University of Málaga, Spain
Patricia Dorval, IRCL, UMR5186, CNRS/Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, France
Sujata Iyengar, University of Georgia, USA
Pierre Kapitaniak, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, IRCL, France
Ronan Ludot-Vlasak, Université Lille 3, France
Plenary speakers
Douglas Lanier, University of New Hampshire
Courtney Lehmann, University of the Pacific
Samuel Crowl, Ohio University
Stephen O’Neill, Maynooth University
Judith Buchanan, University of York
Poonam Trivedi, University of Delhi
120 years after the filming of King John by Herbert Beerbohm Tree in 1899, which inscribed Shakespeare on celluloid for the first time; thirty years after the release of Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V (1989), which triggered the fin-de-siècle wave of screen adaptations; twenty years after the publication of Kenneth S. Rothwell’s seminal History of Shakespeare on Screen (CUP, 1999) and twenty years after The Centenary Shakespeare on Screen Conference organized by José Ramón Díaz at the University of Málaga in September 1999, which constituted “Shakespeare on Screen” scholars into an international academic community, time has come to gather together again to reflect on the evolutions of both our objects and methods of study.
The “Shakespeare on Screen in the Digital Era” International Conference invites scholars worldwide to explore the consequences of the digital revolution on the production, distribution, dissemination and study of Shakespeare on screen. Since the 1999 Málaga conference, the rise (and fall) of the DVD, the digitalization of sounds and images allowing us to experience and store films on our computers, the spreading of easy filming/editing tools, the live broadcasts of theatre performances in cinemas or on the Internet, the development of online video archives and social media, as well as the increasing globalisation of production and distribution (raising the question of technological availability worldwide), have changed the ways Shakespeare is (re)created, consumed, shared and examined. Shakespeare’s screen evanescence and his transfictional and transmediatic spectrality have blurred the boundaries between what Shakespeare is and is not, leading us to question our own position as scholars who keep spotting, constructing and projecting “Shakespeare” in audiovisual productions.
Call for papers
Seminars for the Shakespeare on Screen congress
in Montpellier
Thursday 26 – Saturday 28 September 2019
Seminar 1
Screen Shakespeare, French Theory and Critical Reception
Seminar leaders: Anne-Marie Costantini-Cornède (Université Paris Descartes/Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle), Pascale Drouet (Université Poitiers)
This seminar proposes to address the impact of French cinema criticism on screen Shakespeare studies following two complementary perspectives, theory and critical reception.
The first perspective will consider the impact of the scientific research of famous French theorists such as André Bazin, Christian Metz (Film Language: A Semiotics of Cinema…), Jacques Aumont, Alain Bergala, Michel Marie, Marc Vernet (Aesthetics of Film) or Gilles Deleuze (The Movement-Image; The Time-Image), whose works are increasingly translated and resorted to in the field of international Shakespeare studies, along with those of French philosophers such as Derrida or Foucault. What can such ‘tough’ theorists bring to the study of Shakespeare films in terms of critical approach to adaptation, new readings of the plays or visions of Renaissance worlds? Is such theoretical criticism always relevant and, if so, for which kind of adaptations? ‘Classics’ (Olivier, Welles, Kozintsev), foreign or period films, basically narrative-based, ‘straightforward’ adaptations (Branagh, Parker, Nunn, Radford), modernisations (Luhrmann, Loncraine) or more oblique, conceptual films (Pasolini, Jarman, Greenaway, Godard)? And if so, why? Is such criticism more adapted to specific genres – provided generic classification is regarded as relevant for films?
The second perspective will examine the specifically French critical reception of Shakespearean films (Branagh’s or Stoppard/Madden’s for instance) by specialised, but popular, journals such as Positif, Cahiers du cinéma or Les Inrockuptibles, and the – sometimes very critical indeed—stances adopted. Are these critics ‘tough’ purists, even more demanding in their expectations than Shakespeare scholars themselves, and could this precisely relate to a form of theoretical, French critical nourishment?
The seminar is open to international specialists, whether they be specialized in Shakespeare studies and/or Shakespeare films, or other films, but who, as they resort to such criticism, will endeavour to apply their knowledge in relation to Shakespeare adaptations. The two (theoretical or film-based) types of approach may be blended, which in turn could entail useful comparisons.
We invite contributors to send their abstracts (300 words) and biographical notices (200 words) to the seminar leaders by December 1st, 2018.
Seminar leaders: Anne-Marie Costantini-Cornède (Université Paris Descartes/Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle,
Seminar 2
Royal Bodies in Shakespearean Adaptations on Screen
Seminar leaders: Anna Blackwell (De Montfort University) and Marina Gerzic (The University of Western Australia)
In Hilary Mantel’s controversial essay ‘Royal Bodies’ (London Review of Books, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2013), viewed largely as a critique of the current British royal family, Mantel focuses on the intersection of monarchy and bodies – mostly of royal women – arguing that the concept of monarchy is constructed in such a way that the public tends to see royals as superior and untouchable, as something to be admired and looked at. This seminar will examine how Shakespeare and adaptations of his plays on screen engage with the idea of the royal body. Moving beyond Mantel’s limited analysis of the appearance of royal bodies, this seminar will also consider the acts that these royal bodies undertake: political machinations, deception, murder, and conquest; as well as acts of love, heroism and creation. This seminar will also consider the political significance of the royal body in pre/post-Brexit Britain and the consolidation of on-screen royalty in digital media and fan cultures.
We invite contributors to send their abstracts (300 words) and biographical notices (200 words) to the seminar leaders by December 1st, 2018.
Seminar leaders: Anna Blackwell (De Montfort University,
Seminar 3
Gender-Switching and Queer Opportunities in Web-Native Shakespeare
Seminar Leaders: Ariane Balizet (Texas Christian University), Marcela Kostihová (Hamline University)
This seminar will explore the interpretive possibilities generated by queer and gender-switched casting in web series and other digitally-native media adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. By shifting the means of production and distribution beyond traditional mainstream media channels, new digital platforms like YouTube, Tumblr, and Netflix offer a creative process through which more people can adapt Shakespeare in their own image. So, too, can queer and gender-switched characters manifest the application of theoretical approaches such as queer theory, girls’ studies, and disability studies to Shakespeare’s work. Amateur web series such as A Document of Madness and Hamlet the Dame, for example, prominently feature gender-switched, trans, and queered interpretations of characters from Hamlet. We seek seminar contributions that consider the intersection of Shakespearean adaptation in web-native media (broadly construed) with various approaches to adaptation and popular culture. How does amplifying girl and/or queer voices in Shakespearean adaptation shift the interpretive possibilities in a particular play? Is gender-switching always queer? How might looking at web-native productions help us understand the history of Shakespeare on Screen, especially those productions that assimilated or actively erased the presence of girls, women, and queer artists? How might digital media address the challenges faced by women and nonbinary performers, for whom traditional Shakespearean theatrical productions provide very few roles? Do amateur Shakespearean web series exist within Michael Wesch’s notion of “context collapse,” or does Shakespeare’s author function – manifest in theatrical, cinematic, or pedagogical iterations – fundamentally shape the way these web series are consumed and appreciated?
We are particularly interested in contributions (3,000-5,000 words) that identify intersectional theoretical approaches to representations of gender, sexualities, race, ethnicity, age, and ability within existing digital media, or pedagogical methods for engaging with these questions in the Shakespeare classroom.
We invite contributors to send their abstracts (300 words) and biographical notices (200 words) to the seminar leaders by December 1st, 2018.
Seminar Leaders: Ariane Balizet, Texas Christian University (
Seminar 4
“Who the Bard? Me the Bard!” (Upstart Crow, ep. 4, BBC Two, 2016): Shakespeare as Character on Screen in the Digital Era
Seminar leaders: Sylvaine Bataille (Université de Rouen Normandie), Laura Goudet (Université de Rouen Normandie), Anaïs Pauchet (doctoral student, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3).
In this seminar we propose to take a fresh look at the representations of Shakespeare as a character on screen, twenty years after the release of blockbuster romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love (dir. John Madden, 1998), which imprinted a lasting image of Shakespeare in popular culture while also generating a significant amount of scholarship (R. Burt, 2000; C. Lehmann, 2002; M. Anderegg, 2003; Franssen, 2014); and two years after the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, which brought in its wake new screen incarnations of the playwright, such as BBC Two’s sitcom Upstart Crow (2016-present) and TNT’s short-lived Will (2017).
Not only has the range of fictional versions of Shakespeare the man in film and television greatly expanded since the end of the last century, but technological mutations have also deeply transformed their mode of consumption as well as made available and encouraged the production of a myriad of other treatments of Shakespeare as character on (computer) screen. Video-sharing platforms on the Internet serve both as archives and distributors of original content. On YouTube, for instance, viewers can watch scenes from Shakespeare in Love, previews of episodes of Upstart Crow, or the trailers of A Waste of Shame (a television film broadcast on BBC Four in 2005), Anonymous (dir. Roland Emmerich, 2011) or Bill (dir. Richard Bracewell, 2015). Cameo appearances of Shakespeare (for instance in Doctor Who or in Blackadder) are spotted, extracted from their original context and uploaded on the platform by individual users for other users to watch and comment on. Online video platforms also host sketches featuring Shakespeare, both old (Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie in “Shakespeare and Hamlet”, 1989) and new (Key & Peele, “Black Theater”, 2015), and even a rap battle featuring Shakespeare (“Dr Seuss VS Shakespeare”, from the webseries Epic Rap Battles of History). Another area that appears to be of interest with regard to recent uses of Shakespeare as character is video games, for instance in The Simpsons game (2007) or Final fantasy IX (2000).
In the digital era, portrayals of the playwright on screen proliferate through variation as well as reduplication and quotation, making “Shakespeare” more than ever “a contested object of value, a body that […] remains always in motion” (D. Lanier, 2007).
Contributions to this seminar may address topics such as reverence and irreverence in the treatments of the character, the depiction of the playwright’s creative process, the treatment of the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, the recurrence of Shakespeare as a comic character, the actors interpreting the role, the impact of the format, issues related to sexuality, gender, race and class relations in the representations of Shakespeare as character. Comparative studies as well as case studies are welcome.
We invite contributors to send their abstracts (300 words) and biographical notices (200 words) to the seminar leaders by December 1st, 2018.
Seminar leaders: Sylvaine Bataille (Université de Rouen Normandie,
Seminar 5
Whose Screen is it Anyway? Shakespeare in digital Interactive media
Seminar Leaders: Ronan Paterson (Teesside University), Zora Martin (University of Freiburg/Scripps College)
Successive generations have constantly applied new technological approaches to rediscover and reconfigure Shakespeare’s work for their own times, as human beings have striven to create multi-sensory means of examining essential human questions and ethical dilemmas. Nowhere do we find more of these questions than in Shakespeare, whose stories turn these questions into emotionally engaging narratives. Many new and different narrative mediations have appeared in recent years but some basic questions remain unaltered. The “how” we do it, the methodological approaches, change almost daily, but the fundamental “why” remains unchanged.
Currently digital technologies potentially offer the widest range of options for fresh approaches. In the last 20 years, the medium of display on screens has changed, but less so than the definition the “screen” itself. No longer is viewing a collective, fixed time activity. Personal digital screens are available to viewers almost constantly. This radically changes the specificity of the viewing experience. A personal screen gives the viewer complete autonomy over how, where, and when he or she watches, and in which format, language, and order of scenes. Additionally this brings with it, in comparison with other media accessed digitally, a viewer expectation of increased agency, a transformation into participants. If the participant can make choices about the format, why not about the story?
Murray (1997, 2017) has theorised ways in which digital technologies offer the participant immersion, agency and transformation, and has demonstrated how authorship has different meanings in a virtual world. Ryan (2001, 2015) has discussed “the dream of the immersive, interactive narrative” (2015). From a gaming perspective Bogost (2011) and before him Costykian (1994) have challenged both ludists and narratologists to find meaningful application of these technologies to literature. Underlying these questions are theoretical concepts examined by Baudrillard (1994, 1996,1997) and, earlier, Benjamin (1936). But whereas different aspects of these questions have been extensively discussed, the combination of elements, and the application to Shakespeare, have yet to be thoroughly examined. Areas of exploration, amongst many others, might include the following:
If participants have agency, how do we ensure narrative coherence? Does a world in which participants have agency remain Shakespeare’s? In an immersive Shakespeare world, who does the participant become? At whom might such digital renderings be aimed? Do they sit within the province of education, or are they part of the entertainment industry, for which Shakespeare’s plays were originally conceived? Who are the target audience? What can we reasonably expect to achieve? What can these digital technologies genuinely offer to Shakespearean production and reception? Are we hoping to use digital as a gateway to create readers and live audiences, or is digital Shakespeare something else entirely?
We invite contributors to send a 300-word abstract and a short 200-word biographical note to the seminar leaders by December 1st, 2018.
Seminar Leaders: Ronan Paterson, Teesside University,
Seminar 6
Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet
Seminar leaders: Victoria Bladen (University of Queensland), Sarah Hatchuel (Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3), Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin (Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3)
Romeo and Juliet is one of the plays that have led to the most numerous productions, adaptations, screen allusions and quotations, from the first days of cinema to the digital age. This seminar will explore the specificity of this mythical play and the multiple ways in which it has been recycled, appropriated and parodied on screen. From Stuart Blackton’s 1908 silent film to the Twilight saga series advertised as a new Romeo and Juliet, from George Cukor’s 1936 film to Baz Luhrmann’s popular Romeo+Juliet (1996), from West Side Story(1961) to Franco Zeffirelli’s movie (1968), from The Animated Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet (TV, Russia and UK, 1992) to The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998), from Tromeo and Juliet (1996) to Gnomeo and Juliet(2011), the play has generated so many resurgences that avatars of Romeo and Juliet can be spotted on screen all over the world. What do such films as Lev Arnshtam’s Russian Romeo i Dzhulyetta (1955), Cheah Chee-Kong's Singaporean film Chicken Rice War (2000) or Bollywood romantic dramas like Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) or Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram-Leela (2013) do with the play? How is the play translated and adapted to various cultural backgrounds world-wide? This seminar will explore how screen versions re-construct Romeo and Juliet and project what the play ‘is’ and ‘means’. It will also aim to provide theoretical tools that will help to approach the play as an object of filmic ‘transfiction’.
Selected essays will be part of a book proposal we will submit to Cambridge University Press as part of the ‘Shakespeare on screen’ collection.
We invite contributors to send their abstracts (300 words) and biographical notices (200 words) to the seminar leaders by December 1st, 2018.
Seminar leaders: Victoria Bladen (University of Queensland,
Seminar 7
Shakespeare on Screen in Francophonia
Seminar leaders: Patricia Dorval (Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3/CNRS) ; Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin (Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3/CNRS)
The seminar aims at studying French-speaking Shakespeare films (filmed theatrical performances for television, TV adaptations, film adaptations) as well as allusions to Shakespeare and his works.
From the earliest silent films to more recent films like The Artist (2011), Shakespeare has been present in French cinema through adaptation or allusion.
Contributors are invited to address one or more specific French or French-speaking adaptations or one of the following issues:
- How is Shakespeare dealt with in francophone films?
- Which francophone film directors recurrently draw on Shakespeare?
- How are Shakespearean allusions received by a French-speaking audience?
- Is there a French specificity in the way Shakespeare citations are handled?
- How are Shakespeare’s plays adapted on French film and TV screens?
- What place does Shakespeare hold on French screens?
The papers will be considered for publication on the website www.shakscreen.org which constitutes both a database and a refereed e-publication.
We invite contributors to send their abstracts (300 words) and biographical notices (200 words) to the seminar leaders by December 1st, 2018.
Seminar leaders: Patricia Dorval (IRCL, UMR5186, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 ; CNRS,
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 30.268 Tuesday, 29 May 2019
From: Neema Parvini <
Date: May 29, 2019 at 8:27:46 AM EDT
Subject: Shakespeare and Morality Symposium, 21st June
I’m pleased to announce that a limited number of tickets for this event are now available, register (for free) here: https://sa1.seatadvisor.com/sabo/servlets/TicketRequest?eventId=1279125&presenter=TLUOS&venue=&event=&version
Shakespeare and Morality Symposium, 21st June
Ivy Arts Centre, Guildford School of Acting
Hosted by the Surrey Shakespeare Centre
9am Registration
All sessions consist of two 25-minute papers followed by 25 minutes for Q&A and discussion.
Neema Parvini (Surrey), Shakespeare and Morality – Some Opening Remarks
Patrick Gray (Durham), Shakespeare and Morality – Some More Opening Remarks
Coffee
Elizabeth Sandis (Shakespeare Institute), Dangerous pastimes at Oxford: How did the city, the university, and the students view Shakespeare’s works? (And could they even view them?)
Jessica Chiba (Royal Holloway), 'Nor could she moralize his wanton sight': Shakespeare and the Moral Law
Lunch
Amanda Finch (Ulster), Isabella/Isabel: representations of ideal and complex victims in Measure for Measure at Donmar Warehouse.
Darren Tunstall (Guildford School of Acting), Authority and Honest Signalling in Macbeth
Tea
Gilad Gutman (Tel-Aviv), “Show Us to Be Watchers”: Relativizing Morality through Demonology
Jeffrey Wilson (Harvard), Tragic Excess in Hamlet
Neema Parvini
Senior Lecturer in English
University of Surrey
Guildford