Shakespeare in Canada: A World Elsewhere?

Mima Vulovic is a sessional lecturer at York University who also works
at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

Shakespeare in Canada is an exhaustive interdisciplinary attempt to
examine the history and reception of Shakespeare in Canada, and to
establish a distinctly Canadian contribution to international
Shakespearean scholarship.

The book offers a historically comprehensive account of Shakespearean
productions across the land, from the “pioneer” efforts in the late
19th century to an array of contemporary stagings (both orthodox and
unorthodox) in regional, professional, and school theatres, as well as
on CBC Radio. The emphasis throughout is Canada—the larger context and
the national identity forged through tensions between English and French
and dialectic bearings of the mainstream culture on First Nations,
people of colour, and new immigrant communities. The Bard’s universal
appeal, whether confirmed, challenged, or denounced, invariably serves
as a pretext for exploring the issue of national identity, as well as
pointedly local approaches to nationalism, separatism, cultural
pluralism, cultural appropriation, feminism, and postcolonialism.

Diana Brydon is Robert and Ruth Lumsden Professor of English at the
University of Western Ontario, co-author of Decolonising Fictions, and
author of Christina Stead and Writing on Trial: Timothy Findley’s
Famous Last Words. Irene R. Makaryk is a professor of English at the
University of Ottawa, and the author, editor, or co-editor of eight
books, including The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory.