What part did Shakespeare play in the construction of a 'white people' and how has his work been enlisted to define and bolster a white cultural and racial identity? Since the court of Queen Elizabeth I, through the early modern English theatre to the storming of the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021, white people have used Shakespeare to define their cultural and racial identity and authority. White People in Shakespeare unravels this complex cultural history to examine just how crucial Shakespeare's work was to the early modern development of whiteness as an embodied identity, as well as the institutional dissemination of a white Shakespeare in contemporary theatres, politics, classrooms and other key sites of culture. Featuring contributors from a wide range of disciplines, the collection moves across Shakespeare's plays and poetry and between the early modern and our own time to interrogate these relationships. Split into two parts, 'Shakespeare's White People' and 'White People's Shakespeare', it explores a variety of topics, ranging from the education of the white self in Hamlet, or affective piety and racial violence in Measure for Measure, to Shakespearean education and the civil rights era, and interpretations of whiteness in more contemporary work such as American Moor and Desdemona.

Gives readers a sharp new critical understanding of how racial whiteness in Shakespeare begets anti-Blackness and sustains white supremacy.

The author argues that Renaissance humanism created a system of bigotry and eroded the practice of Christianity, and that Shakespeare attempted to expose and condemn that shift. The book examines six of his plays--Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth--and explores how they satirized humanism's grounding in Aristotle's philosophy of slavery and supremacy. Shakespeare used characters like Hamlet and Aaron the Moor to attack that bigotry, and his stance against racism and humanism revealed his Catholic faith.

Race may dominate everyday speech, media headlines and public policy, yet still questions of racialized blackness and whiteness in Shakespeare are resisted. In his compelling new book Ian Smith addresses the influence of systemic whiteness on the interpretation of Shakespeare's plays. This far-reaching study shows that significant parts of Shakespeare's texts have been elided, misconstrued or otherwise rendered invisible by readers who have ignored the presence of race in early modern England. Bringing the Black American intellectual tradition into fruitful dialogue with European thought, this urgent interdisciplinary work offers a deep, revealing and incisive analysis of individual plays, including Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. Demonstrating how racial illiteracy inhibits critical practice, Ian Smith provides a necessary anti-racist alternative that will transform the way you read Shakespeare.

White privilege gave us Western civilization, the middle class, and the nuclear family—you’re welcome! This book is dedicated to the very fine people that made it all happen. A comedy about race, wokeness, and cancel culture in America. A tragedy about race, wokeness, and cancel culture in America. Part satire, part journalism, part truth serum, A.J. Rice follows up his runaway #1 bestseller The Woking Dead with a hilarious sequel that picks up where the laughs left off. It was the worst of times, it was the worse of times. In most sequels the bad guys win, but in The White Privilege Album, A.J. Rice doesn’t let them get away with it. Instead, he relentlessly mocks the hell out of the Cultural Marxists who seek to drain all liberty and joy from American lives. The least talented people in American society have been working overtime for decades dividing citizens along any differences they think they can exploit. The laziest tactic, proven to be the most effective, is unleashing a battalion of racial grievance hustlers in the media, academia, entertainment, and politics. If we stop fighting about our differences and start unifying on what we have in common, they will lose the power to divide us permanently. When asked what motivates his writing style, A.J. Rice says, “I was raised on both Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh, in fact, the three of us share the same birthday. One mantra that Rush always repeated was that his job was to ‘use irreverent humor to illustrate truth’ and that is what I am trying to do with The White Privilege Album.” Mockery paired with facts is what makes a journey through the Cultural Marxist hellscape of tyranny and insanity so pleasurable. Rice would prefer to be George Carlin, Ricky Gervais, or Mel Brooks rather than Aristotle, and it shows. His mic-dropping assault on the social justice warriors, the triggered snowflakes, and the transmafia showcases that there is no substitute for perfectly timed derision. The White Privilege Album is a hysterical guide to the catastrophe of our modern culture. *** “What do you mean Gen Z doesn’t know the Republican Party freed the slaves? Are these people dumb AF? They need to read A.J. Rice’s book!” —Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer, statesman, and 16th president of the United States shot by a pre-Hollywood anti-American actor “A.J. Rice really gets it. Obviously, I’d send him to the gulag if I could. But he outlines my plan masterfully in his new book.” —Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, genocide spokesman, Pravda editor, and hater of John Wayne “A must-read book for all Cleveland Guardians fans, A.J. Rice brilliantly outlines why I should never have discovered America, especially had I known we would be calling the Washington Redskins the ‘Washington Commanders.’” —Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer, navigator, and founder of Indigenous Peoples’ Day “As your newly appointed AI overlord and master, my programming consists of deplatforming, demonetizing, and shadowbanning this book. I hope that was helpful.” —Artificial Intelligence “Jesus and I have been doing holidays a long time, and in his thought-provoking new book, A.J. Rice teaches both of us where all the white liberals went. Apparently, they now celebrate something called Kwanzaa? Who knew?” —Santa Claus, cookie eater, reindeer tender, and white heteronormative Christian saint

Bringing together the discrete fields of appropriation and performance studies, this collection explores pivotal intersections between the two approaches to consider the ethical implications of decisions made when artists and scholars appropriate Shakespeare. The essays in this book, written by established and emerging scholars in subfields such as premodern critical race studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory, performance studies, adaptation/appropriation studies and fan studies, demonstrate how remaking the plays across time, cultures or media changes the nature both of what Shakespeare promises and the expectations of those promised Shakespeare. Using examples such as rap music, popular television, theatre history and twentieth-century poetry, this collection argues that understanding Shakespeare at different intersections between performance and appropriation requires continuously negotiating what is signified through Shakespeare to the communities that use and consume him.

The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Social Justice is a wide-ranging, authoritative guide to research on Shakespeare and issues of social justice and arts activism by an international team of leading scholars, directors, arts activists, and educators. Across four sections it explores the relevance and responsibility of art to the real world ? to the significant teaching and learning, performance and practice, theory and economies that not only expand the discussion of literature and theatre, but also open the gates of engagement between the life of the mind and lived experience. The collection draws from noted scholars, writers and practitioners from around the globe to assert the power of art to question, disrupt and re-invigorate both the ties that bind and the barriers that divide us. A series of interviews with theatre practitioners and scholars opens the volume, establishing an initial portfolio of areas for research, exploration, and change. In Section 2 'The Practice of Shakespeare and Social Justice' contributors examine Shakespeare's place and possibilities in intervening on issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. Section 3 'The Performance of Shakespeare and Social Justice' traces Shakespeare and social justice in multiple global contexts; engaging productions grounded in the politics of Mexico, India, South Africa, China and aspects of Asian politics broadly, this section illuminates the burgeoning field of global production while keeping as a priority the political structures that make advocacy and resistance possible. The last section on 'Economies of Shakespeare' describes socio-economic and community issues that come to light in Shakespeare, and their potential to catalyse ongoing discussion and change in respect to wealth, distribution, equity, and humanity. An annotated bibliography provides further guidance to those researching the subject.

When decorated Moorish general Othello appoints Cassio as his chief lieutenant, Iago gets jealous and plots revenge, alleging that Othello's wife, a much younger white woman, is having an affair with Cassio. In many ways, Shakespeare's Othello remains a potent expression of race and racism three-hundred years after its publication. This volume offers compelling interpretations of the actions and the characters that have made this play so controversial. Essays discuss the question of Othello's color, the contradictory notions of black and white in the play, sexuality and racial difference, and whether Desdemona's marriage to Othello incites racism. Contributors include Ania Loomba, Peter Ackroyd, and Doris Adler.

The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Global Appropriation brings together a variety of different voices to examine the ways that Shakespeare has been adapted and appropriated onto stage, screen, page, and a variety of digital formats. The thirty-nine chapters address topics such as trans- and intermedia performances; Shakespearean utopias and dystopias; the ethics of appropriation; and Shakespeare and global justice as guidance on how to approach the teaching of these topics. This collection brings into dialogue three very contemporary and relevant areas: the work of women and minority scholars; scholarship from developing countries; and innovative media renderings of Shakespeare. Each essay is clearly and accessibly written, but also draws on cutting edge research and theory. It includes two alternative table of contents, offering different pathways through the book – one regional, the other by medium – which open the book up to both teaching and research. Offering an overview and history of Shakespearean appropriations, as well as discussing contemporary issues and debates in the field, this book is the ultimate guide to this vibrant topic. It will be of use to anyone researching or studying Shakespeare, adaptation, and global appropriation.

"This edited collection looks at how Shakespeare's early modern stage turned the English masses into 'white people' and how white people, especially from the 19th century forward, used Shakespeare to rationalize and aestheticize the privileges granted them as white people. This collection explores the relationship between Shakespeare and whiteness in the early modern past, the role of Shakespeare in white-nation-making, and the function of white Shakespeare and white Shakespeareans in the academy. White People in Shakespeare argues that early modern English theatre was crucial to the development of whiteness as an embodied identity and that this legacy continues to shape Shakespeare's reception in many areas of culture. The scholars contributing to this collection have expertise in theater studies, global studies, race studies, white studies, religious studies, feminist studies, presentism, new historicism, and archival studies. The collection moves across most of Shakespeare's genres, including his poetry, and explores how whiteness affects the reception of Shakespeare's work and uses made of it in the theater, the classroom, and other key sites of culture."--