Variable objects : Shakespeare and speculative appropriation

Examines Shakespeare fragments as agents of appropriation Drawing on new materialism and object-oriented ontology, Variable Objects proposes that Shakespeare is a vibrant object replete with a variable energy that accounts for its infinite meaning-making capacity. Using critical race theory, object oriented feminism, performance studies, Global Shakespeares, media studies and game theory, the collection’s essays explore the dialogic relationship between the Shakespeare object and its appropriation. Each chapter demonstrates that instead of moving away from the source of appropriation, an object-oriented approach can centralise Shakespeare without the constraints of outdated notions of fidelity. Highlighting the variable materiality inherent in Shakespeare, the collection foregrounds the political ecologies of literary objects as a new methodology for adaptation studies. Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction: Bound in a Nutshell – Shakespeare’s Vibrant Matter PART I: DISCIPLINARY OBJECTS 1. Beds, Handkerchiefs and Moving Objects in Othello 2. The Collectible Ofelia: Object-Oriented Feminisms and the Un-Human Corpus of Q1’s Dispensaniac 3. Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Bard PART II: MEDIA OBJECTS 4. ‘Were I human’: Beingness and the Postcolonial Object in Westworld’s Appropriation of The Tempest 5. Finding Ludonarrative Harmony in the Limited Agency of Ophelia in Elsinore 6. Sympathise with the Losers: Performing Intellectual Loserdom in Shakespearean Biopic 7. Prosthetic Properties: The Materiality of Race and Gender in The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses PART III : HUMAN OBJECTS 8. ‘Intermission!’: Reading Race in the Objects of Key & Peele’s ‘Othello Tis My Shite’ 9. Sight Unseen: Visualising Variability through Ontological Representations in Macbeth 10. The Thing Itself: Performance and the Celebrity Text 11. ‘The Promised End’: Shakespeare and Extinction Index "Drawing on new materialism and object-oriented ontology, Variable Objects proposes that Shakespeare is a vibrant object replete with a variable energy that accounts for its infinite meaning-making capacity. Using critical race theory, object oriented feminism, performance studies, Global Shakespeares, media studies and game theory, the collection's essays explore the dialogic relationship between the Shakespeare object and its appropriation. Each chapter demonstrates that instead of moving away from the source of appropriation, an object-oriented approach can centralise Shakespeare without the constraints of outdated notions of fidelity. Highlighting the variable materiality inherent in Shakespeare, the collection foregrounds the political ecologies of literary objects as a new methodology for adaptation studies." -- Provided by publisher