Shakespeare's Cross-Cultural Encounters - by Geraldo U De Sousa (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In this highly entertaining study, De Sousa argues that Shakespeare reinterprets, refashions and reinscribes his alien characters - Jews, Moors, Amazons and gypsies. In this way, the dramatist questions the narrowness of a European perspective which caricatures other societies and views them with suspicion. De Sousa examines how Shakespeare defines other cultures in terms of the interplay of gender, text and habitat. Written in a provocative style, this readable book provides a wealth of fascinating information both on contemporary stage productions and on race and gender relations in early modern Europe.

Review Quotes

'vast cross-cultural scope...de Sousa's erudition is notable in every page of this fascinating work...A photographic treat with fourteen plates of rare engravings...Shakespeare's Cross-Cultural Encounters is the type of book that unsettles decades of interpretation of the canon which are infatuated with timeless and universal themes ...an invaluable source of aesthetic and ideological stimulation.' - Margarida Gandara Rauen, Shakespeare Quarterly

'many thought-provoking interpretative suggestions...in the process of comparing Shakespeare's with other constructions of alien culture, de Sousa introduces a spacious new world of early modern anthropological and ethnographic texts, often translated here for the first time, that will make all future discussions of this topic richer. - Meredith Ann Skura, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900

About the Author

GERALDO U. DE SOUSA is Professor of English at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he has taught Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, and British Studies since 1989. He was educated in Brazil and the United States receiving his PhD from the University of Kansas. He has published extensively on Renaissance drama and culture.