#acmrs

[shakespearenews]

Teaching Shakespeare and Ecocriticism

By: Cameron Hunt McNabb and Mia Henrich

As part of our course, students were asked to come up with ideas for staging an ecocriticism-informed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and one student, Cooper Hoeksema, had a particularly compelling suggestion. He read Puck’s near-final lines in the epilogue — “Give me your hands” (5.1.454) — as an opportunity to commit to action rather than a bid for applause, a space where audience members could be invited to pledge support, to “give their hands,” to fight the climate crisis. This reading has made us further consider how teachers and students of Shakespeare can give their hands to environmental activism.

[shakespearenews]

Disability and Shakespeare: A Guide for Practitioners and Scholars

by Sawyer Kemp and Cameron Hunt McNabb | “Inclusive” and “Accessible” have become popular buzzwords for Shakespeare producers and…

For instance, Taming of the Shrew suggests Katherine has a limp, though scholars have historically read the reference as a metaphor and no modern productions had ever staged her that way (until one very recently). However, staging a limping Katherine, as Rachel E. Hile points out, completely changes interpretations of the play, especially connected with gender expectations and the play’s “marriage problem.”

A similar pattern can be found in Richard II, where the Duke of York calls his arm “prisoner to the palsy.” Despite modern productions overlooking this impairment, it crucially explains York’s political waffling because he may not be able to leverage physical violence. If there are references to disability or impairments in a play, stage them and consider how they may significantly contribute to meaning-making in the play.

[shakespearenews]

Scholars discuss the intersection of 'Shakespeare and Indigeneity'

In 1767, nine chiefs from the Cherokee Nation were invited to New York City to view a performance of Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” Exactly what they thought of the play, rife as it is with themes of power and fatalism, has been debated throughout history.

[shakespearenews]

Shaking out Shakespeare in Hawai’i: A Qualities of Mercy Dispatch

by Brooke A. Carlson | Known for its beauty and recreational space, some nine million tourists move through Hawai’i regularly. Yet…

Shakespeare is a complex figure in Hawai’i. His name has been translated into Hawaiian as Hoonaueueihe, but none of his work has been translated into Hawaiian. In 1974, James Grant Benton adapted Twelfth Night as Twelf Night O Wateva! in pidgin. In 2012, building on Benton but blending pidgin and English, Taurie Kinoshita adapted Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors as One Comedy of Erras.

[shakespearenews]

Throughlines

Bring premodern critical race studies into your classroom with Throughlines. Created by field-leading scholars, Throughlines’ pedagogical approaches offer accessible and critical ways to incorporate discussions of race into college courses on premodern subjects. With lectures, activities, exemplar syllabi, and more, Throughlines brings the study of the premodern literature, history, religion, culture, and more into the 21st century.

[phibetakappa]

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On our second episode of #PBKKeyConvos, Professor Ayanna Thompson discusses the universality of Shakespeare while honing in on how he would have reacted to racialized readings of his work. A former #PBKVisitingScholar, Thompson specializes in Renaissance drama and issues of race in performance, and is the director of the #ACMRS (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies) at @arizonastateuniversity. Listen to the full episode now at pbk.org/key-conversations (at Phi Beta Kappa Society) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqKkGbsj2Mp/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1at0os9xdrp11