Shakespeare Across Cultures

Shakespeare is the most translated, staged, filmed and studied author in world literature. He is adapted, localized, domesticated and appropriated on the page, stage, and other media in many languages and cultures across the world. This 4-credit course, which analyses how Shakespeare influences and is influenced by the languages and cultures of the world, is intended for postgraduate students of English Literature. The objectives of this course in which many Shakespeare experts in India will guide students are to analyse Shakespeare by using discourses of language, race, gender, identity and geopolitics, explore how Shakespeare is negotiated on page, stage, screen and classroom discourses, outline Shakespeare adaptations and the responses they evoke in diverse cultures, demonstrate how cultures transfigure Shakespeare in their literary and cultural terrain, illustrate the reasons for reworking and adapting Shakespeare in various cultures, show how contemporary viewers critically respond to the reworkings of Shakespeare, and find alternative frameworks to rework the essentially Eurocentric Shakespeare discourses.

COURSE LAYOUT

Week 1:Shakespeare Across Cultures: Introduction, Canon and Culture: Universality of Shakespeare
Week 2:Cultural Imperialism Global Shakespeare, Colonialism and Shakespeare
Week 3:Shakespeare and the Imperialism of the English Language, Shakespeare as Icon and Industry
Week 4:Shakespeare and Modern Culture, Shakespeare Our Contemporary
Week 5:Shakespeare on Page, Shakespeare on Stage, Shakespeare on Screen
Week 6:Shakespeare in New Media, The Internet Shakespeare, Multicultural Shakespeare
Week 7:Digital Shakespeare: Literary Informatics, Shakespearean Semiotics, Shakespeare Translations,
Week 8:Shakespeare and the Language of Translation, Rewriting and Adapting Shakespeare
Week 9:Shakespeare as Children’s Literature, Shakespeare and Literary Polysystems, Challenges in Shakespeare Translation
Week 10:Political and National Appropriations of Shakespeare, Cross-Cultural and Transcultural Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Cultural Materialism
Week 11:Political Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Gender, Shakespeare and Race
Week 12:Shakespeare and Popular Culture, Postcolonial Shakespeare, Intercultural Shakespeare
Week 13:Shakespeare and Critical Theory, Localizing and Foreignizing Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Cultures of Performance
Week 14:Shakespeare and Indigenous Performances, Shakespeare in Indian Language Translations
Week 15:Shakespeare in Indian Language Adaptations, Shakespeare in India: Films
Week 16:Shakespeare and India: Theatre, Shakespeare Scholarship in India