The Politics of an "Apolitical" Shakespeare

A Soviet-Chinese Joint Venture, 1950-1979

Authors

Alexa Huang Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

In the postcolonial and global era, appropriation of canonical works has frequently been seen as an act of political intervention. In the history of Shakespearean appropriation, however, there have been a few unusual cases that thrive on a vision of apolitical productions. The popular Chinese Much Ado About Nothing (1957, 1961; carbon-copy revival in 1979) is a case in point. Under the historical circumstances of Soviet-Marxist-Maoism in the mid-twentieth century, China witnessed a Soviet-Chinese joint venture to appropriate Much Ado for both practical and aesthetic purposes: to familiarize Chinese actors with the Stanislavskian method; to offer the Chinese audience a glimpse into what was perceived to be authentic theatrical realism and authentic Shakespeare; and, finally, to provide "apolitical" entertainment in a time when ideologies shifted as frequently as policies changed. The Soviet-Chinese joint venture manufactured desirable histories and memories. As such, the trajectory of this particular adaptation over time contradicts the present understanding of historicist and presentist approaches to premodern texts. The creation and reception of this supposedly apolitical Shakespeare are fraught with complications, because at work are the politics of "apoliticization" in the advent of Communism and political prosecution.

Author Biography

Alexa Huang, Pennsylvania State University

Alexa Huang is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University (University Park), where she teaches Shakespeare, critical theory, transcultural performance, Chinese literature, East-West literary relations, and the Asian diaspora. She has published articles on appropriations of Shakespeare in Comparative Literature and Culture, Asian Theatre Journal, and Shakespeare Yearbook (forthcoming). She has also been involved in a multimedia collaborative research project on Shakespeare in Asia (http://sia.stanford.edu), which has produced an online database that provides researchers, instructors, and students of Shakespeare with free access to visual and textual materials on the subject. Alexa holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and a Joint Ph.D. in Humanities from Stanford University. Her works in progress include a book, tentatively titled "The Eye of the Other."