Translation at the Intersections of Shakespeare and Race

Abstract

Abstract Shakespeare’s works make hard, ever-accruing demands on translators because the multiple energies at work in their complex design change and expand unceasingly, together with Shakespeare itself, with societies and cultures, and with translation. Chief among the translator’s tasks, then, is to tackle those demands head-on for stage artists to do right by their art and their publics. The intersections of ‘race’ with Shakespeare, and the presence thereby of racism and kindred forms of prejudiced differentiation in his works—and in critical literature—pose a major challenge. What should a thorough translator do about it? What has been done? Translational choices have been and will be made according to specific reasons and circumstances. What are they? How do they relate to text, to stage, to people? This chapter explores artefacts, objects, and events where Shakespeare and race meet and pull translation towards answers to their conflictive intersections.