Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America

by Ayanna Thompson

Notions, constructions, and performances of race continue to define the contemporary American experience, including our conceptions, performances, and employments of Shakespeare. Passing Strange examines the contact zones between American constructions of Shakespeare and American constructions of race by How is Shakespeare's universalism constructed within explicit discussions and debates about racial identity? Of what benefit is the promotion of Shakespeare and Shakespearean programs to incarcerated and/or at-risk persons of color? Are they aesthetic, moral, or linguistic? Do Shakespeare's plays need to be edited, appropriated, revised, updated, or rewritten to affirm racial equality and relevance? Do the answers to these questions impact our understanding of authorship, authority, and authenticity? A book that does not shy away from controversial topics or unconventional approaches, Passing Strange examines a wide range of contemporary texts and performances, including
contemporary films, novels, theatrical productions, YouTube videos, and arts education programs. In addition, Passing Strange is written for a broad readership, including Shakespeare scholars, secondary school teachers, theatre practitioners, racial activists, and arts education organizers. Uniquely, this book challenges its readers to see American constructions of race and Shakespeare in glorious Technicolor.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Theatre, Race

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2011

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ayanna Thompson is wonderful: her studies are thought-provoking and provocative and both her style and her methodology are original and brilliant. Using tangential ways to look at how Shakespeare is used to address the issue of race in twenty-first century America (and beyond), she forces us to ask the questions that need to be asked. Every chapter is superb, and asks questions that one wouldn't think of asking.

My caveat with this, however, is that I am not sure whether this is a "book", rather than a series of interlinked essays. I don't come out of this with a clear sense of what I have learnt: "Shakespeare and race is very complicated" isn't really a conclusion, though it is probably a fair statement.

This is definitely a book that anyone interested in twenty-first century Shakespeare should read (performers, teachers, scholars, students), and you will all learn something.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read from a Black Shakespeare scholar on passing, performance and race, of Shakespeare and elsewhere in popular culture. While a chapter on YouTube has not aged well (written in 2008, it reflects the earliest days of the site), the others are thought-provoking.

I particularly enjoyed her last chapter on Peter Sellars and his explorations of race through casting. I saw his production of The Merchant of Venice in 1994 and it had similar elements to the production of Othello (2009) discussed in the book. A must read for anyone teaching Shakespeare to today’s students, particularly if they want to explore its performative elements.

[Dev · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for anyone interested in theater and racism. It bursts the bounds of conventional inquiry to include work with Shakespeare's texts on stage, in prison, in schools and on the web. Challenges us to reflect honestly on what Shakespeare's texts - and "Shakespeare" mean to us.