Author Description
In Distracted Times Like The Present, Shakespeare Too Has Been Driven To Distraction. Shakespeare | Cut Considers Contemporary Practices Of Cutting Up Shakespeare In Stage Productions, Videogames, Book Sculptures, And Youtube Postings, But It Also Takes The Long View Of How Shakespeare's Texts Have Been Cut Apart In Creative Ways Beginning In Shakespeare's Own Time. The Book's Five Chapters Consider Cuts, Cutting, And Cutwork From A Variety Of Angles: (1) As Bodily Experiences, (2) As Essential Parts Of The Process Whereby Shakespeare And His Contemporaries Crafted Scripts, (3) As Units In Perception, (4) As Technologies Situated At The Interface Between 'figure' And 'life,' And (5) As A Fetish In Western Culture Since 1900. Printed Here For The First Time Are Examples Of The Cut-ups That William S. Burroughs And Brion Guysin Carried Out With Shakespeare Texts In The 1950s. Bruce R. Smith's Original Analysis Is Accompanied By Twenty-four Illustrations, Which Suggest The Multiple Media In Which Cutwork With Shakespeare Has Been Carried Out.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates the historical and contemporary practice of editing, fragmenting, and reconfiguring Shakespearean texts across various media. Bruce R. Smith, a scholar of Shakespeare and early modern literature, examines how the act of 'cutting' serves as a creative and technological process. By analyzing the intersection of text, performance, and material culture, the author argues that the fragmentation of Shakespeare is not a modern anomaly but a foundational aspect of how his work has been consumed and adapted since the seventeenth century.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Historical analysis of script-cutting practices in the early modern period.
- Examination of Shakespearean adaptation in digital media, video games, and book sculpture.
- Previously unpublished examples of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin's 1950s cut-up experiments.
- Twenty-four illustrations documenting diverse manifestations of Shakespearean cutwork.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive history of every stage production of Shakespeare.
- It does not focus on traditional textual editing or philological restoration of the original folios.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and critics recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of Shakespearean adaptation and media history. Readers frequently note the intellectual density of the prose and the author's ability to connect early modern script practices with avant-garde twentieth-century techniques.
Page Count:
176
Publication Date:
2016-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0191054410
ISBN-13:
9780191054419
Shakespeare Studies
Cultural History
Media Studies
Literary Criticism
Performance Studies
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