Existing comment:
Multicultural Shakespeare
Immigrants first brought Shakespeare to America.
Beginning in the late 17th century, English settlers brought copies of the plays with them or ordered them from London. Later, English speaking settlers pushed westward, carrying their copies of Shakespeare. From the mid-19th century through the years up to World War I, these pioneers were joined by new waves of immigrants from Germany, Norway, Russia, Poland and Italy. Some of these groups had experienced Shakespeare productions at home and sponsored stage versions here in their own languages.
Black Americans developed their own theaters in the early 19th century and performed Shakespeare. They faced difficulties, however, in being fully embraced by American audiences. Some groups have seen Shakespeare as the quintessential representative of white Anglo culture, and to "master" Shakespeare is to become a part of that culture. Yet many ethnic groups want to read Shakespeare in a way that helps them tell their own story: a Yiddish King Lear, a Latino Romeo and Juliet, an Asian Titus. And some in Black communities resist Shakespeare because of his deep association with white culture, and adapt or radically rewrite his words, as Toni Morrison and Djanet Sears have done in their plays Desdemona and Harlem Duet.
Shakespeare, then, is himself an immigrant in America, and is continually revised and enriched by our multicultural community. |