“You have served me well:" The Shakespeare Empire in Central Europe

Abstract

Shakespeare has often served as an instrument of cultural colonialism. In this essay I argue that the current practice of Shakespeare studies in many ways replicates this pattern. By priming the discourse through Shakespeare, it perpetuates logocentric regimes of knowledge that tend to impose reductive perspectives—such as the binaries of Shakespeare’s original–adaptation and that of the author–adapter, but also scripture–exegesis, London–province or London–Continent, centre–periphery and empire–colonial subjects. Drawing on case studies from five centuries—of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century travelling performers, through eighteenth-century German theatre, to twentieth- and twenty-first-century writing and performance, I argue for a need to revisit the logocentric and colonial epistemology. I call for breaking away from the critical heritage of the “Shakespeare Empire,” for reconceptualising how we use Shakespeare, and for refocusing our critical attentions to the thick descriptions of cultures and crafts that make and host Shakespeare.