Shakespeare and the Ethics of Appropriation

"This thoughtful, imaginative, and generous collection takes us beyond the simple identification of Shakespearean appropriation as a field of study in order to place Shakespeare at the center of present-day manifestations of empire, performance, and the humanities. Text, author, and reader form and inform each other in an ethical process, Rivlin and Huang suggest, that mutually constitutes subjectivity and ethical identity. Individual essays productively disagree about the degree of power afforded to each point of this triangular relationship - text, author, reader - but communicate an urgent and compelling need for adaptors, readers, and viewers to reflect upon what 'Shakespeare' means in each of these context and to consider the social and ethical stakes of each of these positions." - Sujata Iyengar, Professor of English, University of Georgia, USA

"This theoretically-sophisticated, cosmopolitan, and forward-looking collection of essays simultaneously questions and celebrates the ethical implications of a manifest 'global Shakespeare.' Huang and Rivlin reimagine appropriation of Shakespeare as itself a form of intersubjective and intercultural dialogue, in the tradition of moral philosophers such as Buber and Levinas, as well as political theorists such as Appiah, Nussbaum, and Taylor. A truly international team of contributors addresses the moral stakes of practices such as translation and intercultural performance; new concepts of interpersonal agency, community, and relatedness serve to illuminate a remarkable array of recent creative adaptations of Shakespeare." - Patrick Gray, Lecturer in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, Durham University, UK