Embodying dialogue: hybridity and identity in Japanese Shakespeare productions

Fielding, Rosalind Jane (2018). Embodying dialogue: hybridity and identity in Japanese Shakespeare productions. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis examines and re-evaluates the contemporary performance of Shakespeare in Japan, taking the impact of social and political developments into account. The first part discusses the changing status of Shakespeare in Japan and corresponding representations of the theatrical past onstage. Two different responses to The Merchant of Venice are used to demonstrate this change, one from a British director and one from a Japanese one. The second chapter expands on this changing status to discuss the ways recent productions have responded to social issues and anxieties, particularly to perceived issues amongst the younger generations. The remainder of the thesis analyses the later stages of Ninagawa Yukio’s career and his Shakespeare productions with his two companies, Saitama Next Theatre and Saitama Gold Theatre. This thesis concludes that through the depiction of hybridity, contemporary performances of Shakespeare are part of an ongoing dialogue between Japanese and British theatre, and through the detailed study of never or rarely examined productions defamiliarises the existing narrative of intercultural Shakespeare in Japan.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):