Weyward Macbeth
Subtitle
Intersections of Race and Performance
Edited by Scott L. Newstok and Ayanna Thompson
This volume of entirely new essays provides innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to the various ways Shakespeare’s "Macbeth" has been adapted and appropriated within the context of American racial constructions. Comprehensive in its scope, this collection addresses the enduringly fraught history of "Macbeth" in the United States, from its appearance as the first Shakespearean play documented in the American colonies to a proposed Hollywood film version with a black diasporic cast. Over two dozen contributions explore the haunting presence of "Macbeth" in American drama, poetry, film, music, history, politics, acting and directing — all through the intersections of race and performance.
Bio
Ayanna Thompson is a professor of English at Arizona State University, where she also directs the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Praise for this book
Timely . . . as with the best works of historical scholarship, Newstok and Thompson's collection merges detailed historiography with immediate relevancy, making this a valuable book indeed.
Dan Venning Theatre History Studies
A welcome addition to the scholarship on theatrical history and practice . . . most of the contributors do show the considerable charge that thinking differently, or highlighting and remembering race, can bring to the play . . . most of the authors at some point refer parenthetically to one or more of their fellow contributors, offering a sense of cogency, a wider arc of discussion, than many such collections manage.
Eric Mallin College Literature
