HomeThe Ethics of “Racechange” in Performance, Adaptations and Tradaptations of Shakespeare’s plays

HomeThe Ethics of “Racechange” in Performance, Adaptations and Tradaptations of Shakespeare’s plays

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Published on Monday, October 03, 2022

Abstract

This seminar, hold by European Shakespeare Research Association (ESRA), aims to analyse race through a “racechange” embodied by the actor on stage and on film through the use of racial prosthetics and language – “Ethiop words”. To what extent does the phenomenon of “racechange” show the intrinsic paradox of race, being the product of an essentialist constructivism, or a constructivist essentialism? How do adaptations and tradaptations reveal the polysemy of race through the dynamics of “racechange”? How is the meaning of race fluctuating depending on the cultural context and the language chosen for the tradaptation? What are the consequences of “racechange” in the interactions between the characters and how does it change the meaning of the play?

Announcement

European Shakespeare Research Association (ESRA) Conference in Budapest, Hungary (6-9 July 2023)

Argument

Why, ’tis a boisterous and a cruel style;

A style for challengers: why, she defies me,

Like Turk to Christian: women’s gentle brain

Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention,

Such Ethiop words, blacker in their effect

Than in their countenance. (As You Like It, 4.3)

Rosalind’s characterization of Phebe’s letter manifests a nexus of ethical challenges bedeviling racial representation in adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. Her polysemic phrase, “Ethiop words,” articulates the racist dimension of the drama’s world orientation – the inky-black words identified troublingly with both human physical blackness and, crucially, moral cruelty and immorality. Furthermore, Rosalind’s words encapsulate the crimes of white femininity habitually policing patriarchal hierarchies of gender and white supremacy. Shakespeare’s cross-dressing heroine simultaneously performs an act of adaptation as she recounts rather than recites the contents, style, and import of Phebe’s epistolary challenge.

By interweaving race, gender, and adaptation, this passage prompts the questions central to the seminar that deals with the ethics of “racechange” (Gubar, 1997) in performance, adaptations and tradaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. We will explore cross-racial impersonations such as blackface, or brownface as well as other types of cross-racial mimicry to examine how directors, costume designers, make-up artists and actors construct race – ethically or unethically.

Race is intrinsically connected to change as it is a fluid concept that is deeply contradictory; it is both a social construct that is also understood (by some) as natural and already fixed. To what extent does the phenomenon of “racechange” show the intrinsic paradox of race, being the product of an essentialist constructivism, or a constructivist essentialism?

How do adaptations and tradaptations reveal the polysemy of race through the dynamics of “racechange”? How is the meaning of race fluctuating depending on the cultural context and the language chosen for the tradaptation? What are the consequences of “racechange” in the interactions between the characters and how does it change the meaning of the play?

Thus, this seminar aims to analyse race through a “racechange” embodied by the actor on stage and on film through the use of racial prosthetics and language – “Ethiop words”.

How to apply

Please send a 250-word abstract and a 2-page CV to us three, Dr Galland, Prof. Dadabhoy and Prof. Pittman:

  • nora.galland@univ-cotedazur.fr,
  • ambereen.dadabhoy@g.hmc.edu,
  • monique.pittman@andrews.edu

by 30 November 2022

Co-convenors

  • Nora Galland (FRANCE), Teaching and Research Fellow, University Côte d’Azur, Nice C.T.E.L. UPR 6307
  • Monique Pittman (USA), Professor of English, Andrews University
  • Ambereen Dadabhoy (USA), Associate Professor of Literature, Harvey Mudd College

Subjects

Places

  • Pázmány Péter Catholic University Szentkirályi u. 28
    Budapest, Hungary

Event attendance modalities

Full on-site event


Date(s)

  • Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Keywords

  • blackface, racechange, appropriation, tradaptation, Shakespeare

Contact(s)

  • Nora Galland
    courriel : nora [dot] galland [at] univ-cotedazur [dot] fr

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Nora Galland
    courriel : nora [dot] galland [at] univ-cotedazur [dot] fr

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« The Ethics of “Racechange” in Performance, Adaptations and Tradaptations of Shakespeare’s plays », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, October 03, 2022, https://doi.org/10.58079/19lm

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