Whose Castle is it Anyway?: Local/Global Negotiations of a Shakespearean Location
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/mstap-2017-0009Keywords:
Hamlet, Elsinore, Kronborg, globalization, nationalism, borders, interculturalismAbstract
Kronborg Castle in the Danish town of Elsinore is a location strongly associated with Shakespeare thanks to the setting of Hamlet. It is a place where fiction currently eclipses history, at least in the context of a cultural tourist industry where Shakespeare’s name is worth a great deal more than Danish national heritage sites. Indeed, Kronborg is now widely marketed as ‘Hamlet’s Castle’ and the town of Elsinore has acquired the suffix ‘Home of Hamlet’. This article examines the signifiers implied in the naming and renaming of Kronborg as a Shakespearean location, while also looking at its unique international Shakespearean performance tradition, which spans two centuries. It describes how the identity of the castle has been shaped by its Shakespearean connection against the backdrop of changing ideologies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and poses questions as to how this identity may continue to develop within the current contexts of renewed nationalism in Europe and the world.
Downloads
References
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Google Scholar
Bay-Petersen, Hans. En selskabelig invitation – Det Kgl. Teaters gæstespil i Nazi-Tyskland i 1930'erne. Copenhagen: Multivers, 2007.
Google Scholar
Berlingske Kultur. 13 June 2015. http://www.b.dk/kultur/helsingoer-hejser-hamletflaget-helt-til-tops
Google Scholar
Bristol, Michael. Big-Time Shakespeare. London, New York: Routledge, 1996.
Google Scholar
Calvo, Clara and Coppélia Kahn, eds. Celebrating Shakespeare: Commemoration and Cultural Memory. Cambridge: CUP, 2015.
Google Scholar
Drábek, Pavel. “English Theatre and Central European Marionette Drama: A Study in Theater Etymology”. Transnational Mobility in Early Modern Theater. Ed. Robert Hencke and Eric Nicholson. London, New York: Routledge, 2014. 177-199.
Google Scholar
“Foreword”. Festspillene paa Kronborg. Theatre programme, 1949. 5.
Google Scholar
Gurr, The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642. Cambridge: CUP, 2011.
Google Scholar
Henningsen, Henning. “En museumsmands erindringskavalkade: Handels-og Søfartsmuseet gennem 30 år”. 1990. http://mfs.dk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1990Enmuseumsmandserindringskavalkade7-34.pdf.
Google Scholar
Huang, Alexa. “Global Shakespeares as Methodology”. Shakespeare 9:3 (2013): 273-290.
Google Scholar
Kennedy, Dennis. “Shakespeare and Cultural Tourism”. Theatre Journal 50.2 (1998): 175-188.
Google Scholar
Kristensen, Tom. “Prolog til Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. Festspillene paa Kronborg. Theatre programme, 1939. 20-22.
Google Scholar
Lord Lloyd. “A Message from Lord Lloyd”. Festspillene paa Kronborg. Theatre programme, 1939.
Google Scholar
Schalkwyk, David. “From the Globe to Globalisation: Shakespeare and Disney in the Postmodern World”. Journal of Literary Studies 15 (1999): 33-65.
Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. Ed Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2006.
Google Scholar
Shakespeare’s Globe. “Adopt an Actor: Naeem Hayat, Final Performance 1”: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/adopt-an-actor/archive/hamletplayed-by-naeem-hayat/final-performance-1
Google Scholar
Shakespeare’s Globe: “Adopt an Actor: Phoebe Fildes ‘Final Performance”: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/adopt-an-actor/archive/ophelia-gertrude-horatio-rosencrantz-played-by-phoebe-fildes
Google Scholar
Shakespeare’s England. 16 October 2016. http://shakespeares-england.co.uk
Google Scholar
Small, Christopher. “Danish Hospitality to Hamlet”. The Glasgow Herald, 17 April, 1959: 5.
Google Scholar
Stauning, Thorvald. “Til Kronborg”. Festspillene paa Kronborg. Theatre programme, 1937.
Google Scholar
Worthen, W.B. Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance. Cambridge: CUP, 2003.
Google Scholar
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.