https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1086 Sous la direction de Pascale Drouet et Yan Brailowsky Date de publication électronique : 13 septembre 2017 Informations sur cette image Crédits : Édouard Lekston Français Ce numéro souhaite explorer le rapport entre le théâtre élisabéthain et jacobéen, celui de Shakespeare mais pas exclusivement, et la représentation de l’Afrique, ou plus contextuellement, la perception du continent africain dans l’Angleterre de la Renaissance. Il s’intéresse aussi aux réécritures, aux appropriations, aux adaptations de Shakespeare par les auteurs, metteurs en scène ou cinéastes africains et africains-américains du XIXe au XXIe siècle. English This issue would like to explore the relationship between Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, that of Shakespeare but also his contemporaries, and the representation of Africa, or, from a contextual viewpoint, the perception of the African continent in early modern England. The issue will also discuss 19th-21st c. re-writings, appropriations and adaptations of Shakespeare by African and African American writers, stage directors and film directors. Shakespeare en devenir https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=3274 fr mer., 13 sept. 2017 10:07:07 +0200 sam., 07 févr. 2026 22:05:11 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1086 0 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1105 This article analyzes South African satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys’s rewriting of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Exploring the social and political critiques contained in MacBeki and The Merry Wives of Zuma, this article argues both plays should be read as postcolonial appropriations of Shakespeare – works that alter the original plays’ language and themes for new, local purposes. Uys’s works target the legacy of colonization in South Africa by deriding neocolonial abuses and the characters who continue to revere colonial systems of power and control. In doing so, his deployment of Shakespeare eschews reaffirming the kind of European cultural hierarchy that the British playwright is often associated with in decolonizing states. In this fashion, Shakespeare’s plays are decolonized by mocking their historic elevation, while at the same time being redeployed to critique national crises such as corruption and continuing economic disparity. However, while these two plays illustrate Shakespeare’s usefulness in critiquing national crises, they also reveal the precariousness of using satire for such purposes in the quickly-shifting political landscape of contemporary South Africa. This article concludes by questioning whether Uys’s two satires were outdone by the events he was attempting to critique. jeu., 23 nov. 2017 17:01:29 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1105 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1859 In the early modern period, Africa was represented as a territory made up of fantasies, stereotypes, and prejudice. Studying Africa in Shakespeare’s plays boils down to analysing the distorted representation that the early modern English depicted at the time. This paper relies on the use of the racial slur “gypsy” in Antony and Cleopatra (1606) by William Shakespeare. With this term, Cleopatra is insulted, in abstentia, twice. It may seem odd to focus on a term that is used sporadically in the play but it is a key element to understand Cleopatra’s ambivalent characterization as well as the plot itself. This insult is given a dramatic function and acts as a tragic trigger marking Cleopatra as the natural enemy of Rome. With this racial slur, Shakespeare committed an anachronism for it could not have been used by the Romans. The word “gypsy” only appeared during the Renaissance and we may wonder why Shakespeare used a typically early modern cultural reference in a Roman play. The issue at stake is to remember that Shakespeare was influenced by classical culture – Roman texts, Greek texts – when he wrote Antony and Cleopatra. Indeed, it is by going back to Greek literature that we might understand why the term “gypsy” had been used for the first time by Shakespeare to refer to Cleopatra through the prism of Greek literature. À l’époque de la première modernité, l’Afrique est un territoire fait de fantasmes, de stéréotypes et de préjugés. Étudier l’Afrique dans les pièces de Shakespeare revient à analyser la représentation déformée que les Anglais ont produite à l’époque. Cet article repose sur l’analyse de l’injure raciale « gypsy » dans Antoine et Cléopâtre (1606) de William Shakespeare. Ciblée par ce terme, Cléopâtre est insultée in absentia, à deux reprises, dans la pièce. Cela peut sembler étrange de se concentrer sur un terme qui n’apparaît pas de façon récurrente dans la pièce, mais je souhaite monter dans quelle mesure celui-ci constitue un terme clé pour comprendre le personnage ambivalent de Cléopâtre ainsi que l’intrigue elle-même. Shakespeare donne à cette injure une fonction dramatique et contribue à faire basculer la pièce dans le tragique en faisant de Cléopâtre l’ennemi naturel de Rome. À travers cette injure raciste, le dramaturge commet un anachronisme car celle-ci n’aurait pas pu être utilisée par les Romains. Le mot « gypsy » n’apparaît que pendant la Renaissance, et on peut se demander pour quelle raison Shakespeare a recours à un mot qui caractérise l’Angleterre de la première modernité dans une pièce romaine. Il est fondamental de se souvenir de l’influence considérable que la culture classique a eu sur Shakespeare alors qu’il composait Antoine et Cléopâtre – celle des textes latins et grecs. En effet, c’est en remontant à la littérature de la Grèce ancienne que l’on peut, dans une certaine mesure, comprendre la raison pour laquelle le terme « gypsy » a été utilisé, pour la première fois, par Shakespeare pour faire référence à Cléopâtre à travers le prisme de la littérature grecque. ven., 27 déc. 2019 19:16:35 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1859 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1087 As African colonies struggled for independence in the 1950s and 1960s and South Africa’s Apartheid regime hardened, the status of Shakespeare changed in Sub-Saharan Africa. African and, accessorily, Caribbean writers started identifying with Caliban, the savaged and deformed slave of The Tempest. I here trace this Calibanic genealogy, starting with the pathologization of Caliban by French ethnopsychiatrist D.O. Mannoni, through the insurrectional rise of Caliban and the corollary deprivileging of the Prospero-figure in key-texts by e.g. Ndabaningi Sithole, Nkem Nwankwo, Lemuel Johnson, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, but also Caribbean writers like Aimé Césaire, as Shakespeare also navigated through a Middle Passage of sorts. mer., 13 sept. 2017 10:30:57 +0200 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1087 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1091 This article advances the argument that the East India Company performed Shakespeare aboard the Red Dragon flagship in Sierra Leone in September 1607 during the Company’s third voyage on route to Surat, Aden, and Bantam. I propose that these performances were political gestures of diplomacy during a crucial point in England’s economic expansion. I will consider the claims in the journal of General William Keeling (1577-1620) as evidence for shipboard performance of Shakespeare. Though the Keeling journal is notoriously problematic in its authorship, I will draw on a range of sources, including journals by other EIC officers and crew members, The Merchants Avizo (1607), and Shakespeare plays, which reveal important intersections between theatrical and maritime cultures. The EIC performances of Hamlet and Richard II in Sierra Leone helped strengthen the bond between the EIC and foreign diplomats like African dignitary Lucas Fernandez, who may have been part of the first non-European audience of Shakespeare. My argument expands on the work of Graham Holderness, Gary Taylor, Ania Loomba, and Richmond Barbour, and positions itself against critics like Bernice Kliman, whose interest in this subject is predicated mainly on the authorship of the Keeling journal, rather than the political implications of these performances. The EIC’s staging of Hamlet in September 1607 is often considered by scholars to be an unusual or improbable footnote in performance history, but historical evidence reveals that this event was a major example of mercantile strategy in Africa. The EIC continued to stage elaborate performances of hospitality in later voyages as they established factories in Asia and tightened the trade networks on both continents. As the EIC literally and figuratively carried England’s economic future, shipboard performance engendered diplomatic relations, contributed directly to the English Commonweal, and positioned the EIC members as major players in a maritime political theatre. mer., 27 sept. 2017 11:47:59 +0200 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1091 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1098 This paper discusses two post-colonial adaptations of Shakespeare by playwrights from the Republic of Congo. The Hamlet adaptation focuses on Gertrude as a product of forced marriage and the role of spirits in Kongo society. The adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is a radical re-working of the tragedy to highlight the political and violent nature of the post-independence African society. Cet article analyse deux adaptations postcoloniales de Shakespeare par des dramaturges de la République du Congo. L'adaptation de Hamlet se concentre sur Gertrude comme produit d’un mariage forcé et sur le rôle des esprits dans la société Kongo. L'adaptation de Romeo et de Juliette est, quant à elle, une révision radicale de la tragédie pour souligner le caractère politique et violent de la société africaine après l'indépendance. jeu., 26 oct. 2017 14:48:49 +0200 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1098 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1114 mer., 29 nov. 2017 09:17:01 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1114 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1115 This paper analyses the manner in which the African-Canadian playwright, Djanet Sears, uses her play, Harlem Duet, to engage the issue of identity which I term orírun. It examines more closely the significance of the handkerchief given to Billie by Othello in the play to the quest for orírun. Although many scholars have in the past traced the link between Othello in Shakespeare’s Othello to Africa and the Egyptians, none has shown the possible knowledge of the Yoruba and their culture in the character’s creation and his famous handkerchief except Diana Adesola Mafe, who also links the same character to Sears’s Othello by examining what he shares in common with the protagonists of two Yoruba plays. Building on Mafe’s effort, I examine Harlem Duet and Sears’s theme of identity in the play through the lens of the Yoruba concept of orírun, by focusing on the story of the ill-fated marriage of the African-American couple, Billie and Othello. mer., 29 nov. 2017 09:52:34 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1115 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1126 Alexander Abela’s Shakespeare adaptations in Madagascar are experimental essays in that they establish essential links in terms of place and time, politics and poetics. If the genetic process seems more prevalent for Makibefo/Macbeth (1999)than for Othello-based Souli (2004), both films show similarities as to the experimental adaptive processbasically resting upon the idea of making a film with isolated, ordinary fishermen descending from traditional ethnic groups, the Antandroy in Faux Cap at the southernmost tip of the island (Makibefo), and the Ambola villagers from the Vezo tribe on the south western coast (Souli). The purpose of this study is to analyse the transcultural processes and see how contextualisation effects (spatial and time displacements) resting upon a dialectical process conflate local issues and universal themes better to underline the archetypal behaviours linked with the fear of loss of power, ambition or jealousy. The ‘transaesthetic’ strategies (narrative displacements, verbal-visual shifts), such as the merging of Shakespeare’s verbal poetics with local language and art (dialects, songs and music) or sleek aesthetics, are not only prone to define idiosyncratic cinematic poetics and impart new layers of meaning to the model plays, but are also relevant to sustain the main issues at stake, whether they be local or global, universal or purely local and hinging on political and socio-ideological themes. Ultimately, what does it bring to the local participants involved and the source texts? Cette étude des deux adaptations malgaches d’Alexander Abela, Makibefo (1999) et Souli (2004), vise à cerner certains des enjeux culturels et esthétiques opératoires dans le processus de transposition qui transporte Shakespeare à Madagascar, la genèse ou les choix premiers : tourner un film avec des pêcheurs descendants de la tribu des Antandroy dans le village de Faux Cap situé à l’extrême sud de l’île (Mabibefo), puis à Ambola, parmi les Vezo, au sud est de l’île, les déplacements narratifs et les effets de transposition et de contextualisation. L’analyse des processus transculturels et des stratégies esthétiques (« épure ») ou des rencontres « transesthétiques » mises en œuvre – exemples de l’écriture expérimentale du cinéaste – permettra de mettre en évidence des enjeux socio-idéologiques et politiques essentiels, dans un contexte à la fois local et global et à partir de thèmes à la fois locaux et universels, ainsi que de proposer de nouvelles nuances de sens aux textes : quels sont, en définitive, les apports pour les actants locaux comme pour les textes sources ? mar., 19 déc. 2017 12:32:01 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1126 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1147 The two Othello spinoffs studied here, Not Now, Sweet Desdemona (1968) and Iago (1979), depict Othello relative to 1960s and 70s movements such as Pan Africanism, Black Power, Négritude, and U.S. Civil Rights.  In this political context, the staging of Othello provides the opportunity to redefine a pivotal play of Western Europe by adding an African perspective – to put the “Moor” back in “Moor of Venice.” With its focus on issues of interracial sex, love, marriage, deceit and murder, Othello intrigues contemporary theatre audiences and directors alike. These two productions push the boundaries of adaptation, and both share specific connections in their approach to reinventing Othello: a resistance to notions of uniform “nation” or “culture,” a desire to experiment with Shakespeare as a tool for engaging audiences in contemporary political dialogue, and a rejection of the trend of the 1960s and 70s toward a black separatist aesthetic, choosing instead to incorporate postcolonial iterations of feminism, womanism and transindigenous performance practice. These two plays use Shakespeare broadly and Othello specifically as a touchstone for Western imperialism and oppression, but a touchstone that invites interrogation.  These adaptations resist textual imperialism and the iconicity of Shakespeare specifically and Western literature more broadly, and they assert personal truths in favor of historical assertions of Truth.  In this way these are productions in the act of spinning off from the original text – they reveal that adaptation is dynamic rather than a state of fixed, derivative existence. They spin erratically, even at times a bit out of control, but they kick Shakespeare’s text into cultural action via the voices of African diaspora. The performances challenge the very concepts of original and derivative texts and invite the audience to see adaptation as a process of spectacular collision that creates new matter, which in turn spins into new systems of meaning. mer., 20 déc. 2017 12:48:07 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1147 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=3274 jeu., 29 janv. 2026 01:12:18 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=3274