
In this engaging new book, writer and critic Graham Holderness shows how a classic Shakespeare play can be the source for a modern story, providing a creative 'collision' between the Shakespeare text and contemporary concerns. Using an analogy from particle physics, Holderness tests his methodology through specific examples, structured in four parts: a recreation of performances of Hamlet and Richard II aboard the East India Company ship the Red Dragon in 1607; an imagined encounter between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson writing the King James Bible; the creation of a contemporary folk hero based on Coriolanus and drawing on films such as Skyfall and The Hurt Locker; and an account of the terrorist bombing at a performance of Twelfth Night in Qatar in 2005. These pieces of narrative and drama are interspersed with literary criticism, each using a feature of the original Shakespeare play or its performance to illuminate the extraordinary elasticity of Shakespeare. The 'tales' provoke questions about what we understand to be Shakespeare and not-Shakespeare, making the book of vital interest to students, scholars, and enthusiasts of Shakespeare, literary criticism and creative writing. INDICE: Introduction: from appropriation to collision; Part I: 1. The voyage of the Red Dragon; 2. 'Shooting an elephant'; Part II: 3. Shakespeare and the King James Bible; 4. 'Wholly Writ': a play in two acts; Part III: 5. The Coriolanus myth; 6. 'The lonely dragon'; Part IV: 7. Shakespeare and 9/11; 8. 'Rudely interrupted'; Afterword: 'Tales from Shakespeare'.
- ISBN: 978-1-107-07129-2
- Editorial: Cambridge University Press
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 257
- Fecha Publicación: 03/07/2014
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés