Description
Book SynopsisWilliam Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture, Politics, and Leadership examines problems, challenges, and crises in our contemporary world through the lens of William Shakespeare's plays, one of the best-known, most admired, and often controversial authors of the last half-millennium.
As perhaps the most oft-cited author in the West outside of the Judeo-Christian Bible, Shakespeare has often been considered a sage, providing manifold insights into our shared human qualities and experiences across time and geography. The editors and authors of this accessible book leverage the now global scope of that sibylline reputation to explore what the Bard might tell us about ourselves, our politics, our leaders, and our societies today.
The chapters are written with critical rigor and will appeal to scholars and students in leadership and literary studies but are accessible to non-Shakespeare experts. Anyone looking to explore the ongoing relevance of Shakespeare's work will find this volume enlightening and entertaining.
Trade Review'Shakespeare Behind Bars was founded to assist the incarcerated in finding their authentic voices through an immersive experience in Shakespeare's original language, complex themes, and multiple meanings. I find myself today, happily aided in this process by writers in this collection from a rich variety of backgrounds who find truth in historical Shakespeare.' -- Curt L. Tofteland, Founder, Shakespeare Behind Bars
'This wide-ranging volume marks an exciting moment in the study of leadership and literature alike. Truly interdisciplinary in their approach, informed by rigorous scholarship, and engagingly written, the book’s chapters help to broaden and deepen our understanding of Shakespeare's continuing--in some ways even increasing--resonance with problems of politics, power, and leadership in our world today.' -- Nicholas Warner, Claremont McKenna College, US
'Timely studies of a timeless author: from #metoo to racial justice to Donald Trump, this brilliant collection, edited by two leading scholars of leadership and literature, highlights the resonances between contemporary political issues and Shakespeare's complex explorations of authority, civic participation, leadership, autocracy--and human identity itself.' -- Michael Harvey, Provost, Washington College, US
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction: “I that please some, try all”: Shakespeare this time 1 Anthony Presti Russell and Kristin M. S. Bezio PART I PERFORMANCE 1 Performance and the political subject in Richard II 11 Melissa Caldwell 2 “Liars and swearers”: Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the dissemblance of modern autocrats 30 Ryan Farrar 3 Learning about leadership from Coriolanus and Coriolanus 51 Peter Iver Kaufman PART II TRUTH 4 “Lies like truth”: Macbeth and the American Dream 67 Anthony Presti Russell 5 When it is wise to play the fool: a lesson in servant leadership, courtesy of King Lear 90 Katey Roden 6 Post-truth and pre-truth: how rhetoric shapes reality in Boyle’s Certain Physiological Essays , Shakespeare’s Othello , and the language of Donald Trump 109 Samantha Dressel PART III RESISTANCE 7 Much ado about me too: the personal and political activism of Shakespeare’s women 131 Jess Landis 8 Importance of highlighting the rotten state: a study of Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider (2014) and its subversive strategies 149 Debaditya Mukhopadhyay 9 The Shakespeare Company Japan and regional self-fashioning 164 Tetsuhito Motoyama and Fumiaki Konno PART IV FREEDOM 10 “Mountainish inhumanity”: the politics of religion, refugees, and ego from Sir Thomas More to Donald Trump 183 Kristin M. S. Bezio 11 Twelfth Night and gender fluidity 202 Maria Carrig 12 Shakespeare in other tongues: translation and adaptation into Yoruba and Hausa in text, film, and stage productions in Nigeria 218 Kayode Gboyega Kofoworola Epilogue and post-script: the art of the De’ill, followed by a discussion between “M” and the editors 236 Raphael Seligmann Index
