Martin Procházka - Renaissance Shakespeare: Shakespeare renaissances proceedings of the Ninth World Shakespeare Congress

Renaissance Shakespeare: Shakespeare Renaissances

The International Shakespeare Association

President:

Dame Judi Dench

Honorary Vice presidents:

Werner Habicht, Dieter Mehl

Vice Presidents:

Ann Jennalie Cook (Vanderbilt University)

Stanley Wells (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)

Chair:

Jill L. Levenson (Trinity College, University of Toronto)

Vice Chair:

Tetsuo Kishi (University of Kyoto)

Executive Secretary and Treasurer:

Nick Walton (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)

Executive Committee:

Carla Calvo (Universidad de Murcia)

Sukanta Chaudhuri (Jadavpur University)

Raffik Darragi (University of Tunis)

Carla Dente (University of Pisa)

Andreas Hfele (University of Munich)

Peter Holbrook (University of Queensland)

Ton Hoenselaars (University of Utrecht)

Tetsuo Kishi (University of Kyoto)

Akiko Kusunoki (Tokyo Womans Christian University)

Jill L. Levenson (Trinity College, University of Toronto)

Chee Seng Lim (University of Malaya)

Lena Cowen Orlin (Shakespeare Association of America)

Jose OShea (Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina)

Roger Pringle (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)

Martin Prochzka (Charles University)

Hanna Scolnicov (Tel-Aviv University)

Congress Committee:

Martin Hilsk (Charles University)

Andreas Hfele (University of Munich)

Ton Hoenselaars (University of Utrecht)

Peter Holbrook (University of Queensland)

Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame)

Christina Jansohn (University of Bamberg)

M.J. Kidnie (University of Western Ontario)

Akiko Kusunoki (Tokyo Womans Christian University)

Chee Seng Lim (University of Malaya)

Kate McKluskie (Shakespeare Institute)

Lena Cowen Orlin (Shakespeare Association of America)

Roger Pringle (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)

Martin Prochzka (Charles University)

Jess Tronch Prez (University of Valencia)

Previous volumes of proceedings

Shakespeare: Pattern of Excelling Nature , Shakespeare Criticism in Honor of Americas Bicentennial from the International Shakespeare Associate Congress, Washington, D.C., April 1976, ed. David Bevington and Jay L. Halio (Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1978).

Shakespeare, Man of the Theater , Proceedings of the Second Congress of the International Shakespeare Association, 1981, ed. Kenneth Muir, Jay L. Halio, and D. J. Palmer (Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1983).

Images of Shakespeare , Proceedings of the Third Congress of the International Shakespeare Association, 1986, ed. Werner Habicht, D. J. Palmer, and Roger Pringle (Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1988).

Shakespeare and Cultural Traditions , The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Tokyo, 1991, ed. Tetsuo Kishi, Roger Pringle, and Stanley Wells (Newark, University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1994).

Shakespeare and the Twentieth Century , The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Los Angeles, 1996, ed. Jonathan Bate, Jill L. Levenson, and Dieter Mehl (Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1998).

Shakespeare and the Mediterranean , the Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Valencia, 2001, ed. Tom Clayton, Susan Brock, and Vicente Fors (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004).

Shakespeare World/World of Shakespeare , The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Brisbane 2006, ed. Richard Fotheringham, Christa Janshohn, and R. S. White (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008).

Renaissance Shakespeare: Shakespeare Renaissances

Proceedings of the Ninth World Shakespeare Congress

Edited by Martin Prochzka, Michael Dobson, Andreas Hfele, and Hanna Scolnicov

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE PRESS

Newark

Published by University of Delaware Press

Copublished with Rowman & Littlefield

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Copyright 2014 by Rowman & Littlefield

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

World Shakespeare Congress (9th : 2011 : Prague, Czech Republic)

Renaissance Shakespeare: Shakespeare Renaissances : Proceedings of the Ninth World Shakespeare Congress / edited by Martin Prochzka, Michael Dobson, Andreas Hfele, and Hanna Scolnicov.

pages cm. (The World Shakespeare Congress Proceedings)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61149-460-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61149-461-7 (electronic)

I. Prochzka, Martin, editor of compilation. II. Hfele, Andreas, editor of compilation. III. Scolnicov, Hanna, editor of compilation. IV. Dobson, Michael, 1960 editor of compilation. V. Title.

PR2976.W69 2014

822.3'3dc23

2013030707

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Foreword

Typically, the opening ceremonies for the Ninth World Shakespeare Congress in Prague struck the keynote for events to follow during a singular week, July 17 to 22, 2011. They began with speeches of welcome, and they ended with performances of episodes from The Winters Tale and Hamlet . At the close, the actors energized the entire venue, stage and audience, with music and other non-verbal effects such as acrobatics. Throughout the conference, productions of Shakespeareby the Shakespeare Summer Festival, the South Bohemia Theatre, the Jewish Museum, as well as cinemacontinued to enhance discussions of Shakespeare. Finally, almost seven hundred delegates from six continents and thirty-eight countries enjoyed many of the programs varied offerings.

In an important political and symbolic gesture, the opening ceremonies for this Congress, centered on the theme Renaissance Shakespeare: Shakespeare Renaissances, took place in the splendid National Theatre. This site has a significant history of its own, related by Professor Martin Hilsk from its stage, and also by the motto inscribed on the frame of its proscenium: The nation to itself. Referring to the performing arts as gifts to the state, the phrase sums up not only the theatres mandate, but also its identity. As they sat in the National Theatre, delegates could appreciate a point made in the program by Professor Martin Prochzka, the local organizer: The Prague Congress is the first global Shakespeare meeting in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. The Renaissances of its theme extended from early modern Europe to the global vistas of the early twenty-first century.

The presence of Professor Zdenk Stbrn at the opening ceremonies and plenary sessions strongly reinforced that point. In the long process of organizing this Prague Congress, the International Shakespeare Association (ISA) depended on the local community of Shakespeare scholars and theatre workers inspired by Professor Stbrn, who is not only a leading Czech scholar of Shakespeare and of English literature in general, but also one of the people who played a significant part in establishing the ISA. As he explains in his memoir, he shared a vision of the first Congress as far back as 1967 with Professor Rudolph Habenicht, then at UCLA. Yet political events prevented him from attending that conference in Vancouver four years later. The autobiography, in The Whirligig of Time (2007), gives this account of his personal situation at the time: