Race and Shakespeare

Shakespeare's plays weave a spectacular, though at times uncomfortable tapestry of diverse skin colours, tongues and ethno-religious backgrounds. In performance, this has lent itself to interpretations that uphold as well as subvert white supremacy. It is both the subversions and the possibilities for anti-racist (re)imaginings that we will inquire into in this course. Together we will move beyond the question of whether Shakespeare was racist, to viewing his plays through the eyes of Europe’s other. An anti-racist interpretation of Shakespeare can start from within his plays, by privileging the viewpoint of the plays’ non-European and subaltern characters. It can also start from outside the Shakespearean script, through putting on non-white spectatorial and directorial lenses. We will experiment with both.

Rationale and Detailed Course Description:

Shakespeare’s plays paint a spectacular, though at times uncomfortable tapestry of diverse skin colors and ethno-religious backgrounds: A Moor in Venice, a Goth in Rome, an Egyptian Queen putting the fate of the Roman Empire at risk, an indigenous ‘savage’ on an enchanted island enslaved by European settlers, and the list goes on.

In other words, the lens for an anti-racist reading of the plays is already present, though not necessarily privileged, in Shakespeare’s world of complex and rich characters and conflicting destinies. At a time when questions of race and neocolonialism are at the forefront of news headlines, and Shakespeare is being used by both racists and antiracists, this course reflects on this uneasy legacy.

Instead of dwelling on or rebuking Shakespeare’s putative racism, we will take a look at the complex articulations of race, racism, and the experience otherness in Shakespeare’s plays. Our main questions will be how we can read the Shakespearean text from the point of view of its own subaltern characters, and how we can re-read, re-imagine, and re-invent Shakespeare through non-Eurocentric and anti-racist eyes. This course will thus attempt to perform an anti-racist, postcolonial, reading that simultaneously takes place from within and from without the text. From within the text, we will attempt to read The Tempest from the point of view of Caliban, Ariel, and Miranda, Othello from the point of view of its eponymous protagonist, Titus Andronicus from the points of view of Tamora and Aaron, in short, to read Shakespeare’s plays from the points of view of their embedded others— an exercise both in character analysis and in postcolonial/race theory (and, depending on the course of the discussion, in postcolonial feminism). From outside the text, we will imagine and utilize the critical lens of non-European directors, actors, spectators, and students who encounter Shakespeare as part of their colonial education. We will also read these plays in conjunction with theoretical works that deal with race, colonialism, and (post)colonial psychology (see sessions 3 and 5 below for more details). Our purpose, however, will be to make the theoretical and academic debates subservient to the creative process, and not vice versa.

As much as this is a course in postcolonial and race studies, it is a workshop in character development, plot analysis, dramaturgy, and the creative interpretation and adaptation of the Western canon. No prior knowledge of these plays, debates, theories, or techniques is required.