Shakespeare in the World Cross-Cultural Adaptation in Europe and Colonial India, 1850-1900 Routledge Studies in Shakespeare Series

Shakespeare in the World traces the reception histories and adaptations of Shakespeare in the nineteenth century, when his works became well-known to non-Anglophone communities in both Europe and colonial India. Sen provides thorough and searching examinations of nineteenth-century theatrical, operatic, novelistic, and prose adaptations that are still read and performed, in order to argue that, crucial to the transmission and appeal of Shakespeare?s plays were the adaptations they generated in a wide range of media. These adaptations, in turn, made the absorption of the plays into different "national" cultural traditions possible, contributing to the development of "nationalist cosmopolitanisms" in the receiving cultures. Sen challenges the customary reading of Shakespeare reception in terms of "hegemony" and "mimicry," showing instead important parallels in the practices of Shakespeare adaptation in Europe and colonial India. Shakespeare in the World strikes a fine balance between the Bard?s iconicity and his colonial and post-colonial afterlives, and is an important contribution to Shakespeare studies.

List of Musical Examples

Acknowledgements

Preliminary Notes

Introduction

Shakespeare’s Reception in Non-Anglophone Cultures: Analytical Paradigms

Theorising Shakespeare Reception Relationally

Shakespeare and “Nationalist Cosmopolitanism”

Adaptation Theory and Cross-Cultural Receptions of Shakespeare

The Case Studies: Patterns and Interconnections

PART 1

1 Shakespeare Reception in France: Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet and Its Intertexts

Introduction

Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Texts and Performances up to the Nineteenth Century

Hamlet in France: From Ducis to Dumas and Meurice

Thomas’s Hamlet as Opera Lyrique

The Operatic Ophélie

The Afterlife of Thomas’s Hamlet

2 Nationalism and Aesthetic Self-Fashioning: Giuseppe

Verdi’s Otello

Introduction

Jealousy and Vengeance in Othello and Otello (i): Racial Discourses

Jealousy and Vengeance in Othello and Otello (ii): Religious Discourses

Jealousy and Vengeance in Othello and Otello (iii): The Pressures of Patriarchy

Verdi’s Musical Choices and the Subversion of Racial Stereotypes regarding Jealousy

Conclusion

PART 2

3 Challenging the Civilising Mission: Responses to The Tempest by Bankimchandra Chatterjee and Rabindranath Tagore

Introduction

Bankim and Bengali Literature After 1857

Bankim’s Life and Literary Career

Kapālakunḍalā: Plot and Intertexts

The Tempest, Kapālakunḍalā, and Women in Nineteenth-Century Bengal (i): A Historical Perspective

The Tempest, Kapālakunḍalā, and Women in Nineteenth-Century Bengal (ii): A Symbolic Perspective

Bankim, Tagore, and the Reception History of The Tempest

4 Two Contrasting Cases of Transculturation of Shakespeare From Nineteenth-Century Bengal: Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s Bhrāntivilās and Girishchandra Ghosh’s Macbeth

Introduction

Part I: Vidyasagar’s Bhrāntivilās

Life and Times of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar

Rereading The Comedy of Errors: Bhrāntivilās and Its Intertexts

Bhrāntivilās and Feminist Readings of Errors

Part II: Girishchandra Ghosh’s Macbeth

The Life and Career of Girishchandra Ghosh

Girishchandra Ghosh’s Macbeth: A Case of Colonial Mimicry?

Conclusion

Contents

Conclusion

Adaptation Studies: Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches

Nationalist Cosmopolitanism and Post-Colonial Mimicry

Cross-Cultural Shakespeare and New Analytical Frameworks

Appendix 1 “Imitation”

Appendix 2 “Śakuntalā, Miranda, and Desdemona”

References

Index

Suddhaseel Sen is Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Bombay. He has a PhD in English (Collaborative Programme in South Asian Studies) from the University of Toronto and a second PhD in Musicology from Stanford University. Sen has been a Research Fellow for the Balzan Research Project, Towards a Global History of Music, directed by Reinhard Strohm. His publications include essays on Shakespeare adaptations; cross-cultural exchanges between Indian and British musicians; Richard Wagner and German Orientalism; nineteenth-century Bengali literature and culture; and films by Satyajit Ray and Vishal Bhardwaj, among others.