The nations that once encountered Shakespeare as a giant but alien presence — often across the colonial divide — are now assimilating him in new ways. This includes theatre as well as text, translations as well as the original, and borrowings and adaptations as well as the integral form of the plays. The terms of reference in this assimilation are inherently political, but are brought out through a unique engagement with the artistic traditions of many cultures. Shakespeare has become a discourse and a myth in new ways, as befits a new world order. This Shakespeare is part of the postcolonial discourse, as of the broader postmodern one: an ‘unwritten’ Shakespeare, ‘without English’, extending the scope of his genius far beyond the frame of his own text and stage practice.

This volume brings together eleven penetrating essays, based on seminar presentations at the Seventh World Shakespeare Congress held at Valencia, Spain, in 2001. Between them, the
contributors cover Asia (India, China, Japan, Korea and Malaysia), Europe (Romania, Germany and Spain) and Latin America (Brazil). Though theatre provides the single greatest point of reference throughout the volume, translation, academic study and wider cultural politics are other major areas of concern.

Appearing on the eve of the Eighth World Shakespeare Congress at Brisbane, Shakespeare Without English has as much to offer students of society and culture as it does to those of literature, theatre, and arts and aesthetics.

• Introduction

1. SHAKESPEARE, ‘THEIRS’ AND ‘OURS’ by Shen Lin


2. SHAMLET: SHAKESPEARE AS A PALIMPSEST by Alexander C.Y. Huang


3. KOREAN SHAKESPEARE: THE ANXIETY OF BEING INVISIBLE by Younglim Han


4. ‘WHY SHAKESPEARE IN JAPAN?’: RESITUATING THE JAPANESE SHAKESPEARE by Kumiko Hilberdink-Sakamoto


5. TRANSLATING SHAKESPEARE INTO JAPANESE: THE ‘MEDITERRANEAN’ PLAYS by Etsuko Fukahori


6. NOT BLACK AND WHITE BUT SHADES OF GREY: SHAKESPEARE IN INDIA by Shormishtha Panja


7. MOVING AWAY FROM THE ‘CENTRE’: THEORY, DRAMA AND PERFORMANCE by Margarida Gandara Rauen


8. THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE ARTIST-CREATOR: THE APPROPRIATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN ROMANIA by Emil Sirbulescu;


9. FROM ELSINORE TO BRUSSELS: SHAKESPEARE AS TRANSNATIONAL DISCOURSE ON THE GERMAN STAGE by Lawrence Guntner


10. SHAKESPEARE AND THE RISE OF ENGLISH IN POST-FRANCOIST SPAIN by Keith Gregor


11. THE ANGLOPHONE SHAKESPEARE: THE NON-ANGLOPHONE SHAKESPEARE by Harish Trivedi

• About the Editors and Contributors


• Index

Sukanta Chaudhuri is Professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He is the author of ‘Infirm Glory: Shakespeare and the Renaissance Image of Man’ (Oxford, 1981, about to be reprinted by DC Publishers, Delhi), co-editor (with Ananda Lal) of ‘Shakespeare on the Calcutta Stage: A Checklist’ (Calcutta, 2001), and author of many articles on Shakespeare.

Chee Seng Lim is Professor of English at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. He too has authored many articles and papers on Shakespeare.