Dear readers.
Rivlin, Elizabeth
Dear Readers,
It is a particular pleasure to introduce Volume 31 (2012),
"Shakespeare's Female Icons," featuring an essay section
guest edited by Francesca Royster of DePaul University. Drawing from a
2010 Shakespeare Association of America seminar, this section and the
issue as a whole examine the ways in which female icons continue to
transform the cultural value of Shakespeare.
Professor Royster's introduction theorizes the significance of
Shakespeare's female icons for contemporary discussions of gender,
race, and power. Natalie Loper analyzes the celebrity presence of the
former teen icon Julia Stiles and the way that her "real-life"
personae inform our perceptions of her Ophelia, while Dee Anna Phares
offers an alternate perspective on Stiles, calling attention to the
visuality and lack of vocality of her Desi in the film O. Challenging
the premise that icons are necessarily visual, Kendra Leonard focuses on
the musical score of Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It. Niamh
O'Leary charts the dynamic new perspective on Hamlet's
enigmatic Gertrude offered by Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet, and
Catherine Thomas studies the varied representations of another highly
ambivalent icon, Lady Macbeth, in recent graphic novels. Coming full
circle, Royster returns to the icon as postmodern celebrity as she
juxtaposes the public reception of Condoleezza Rice to
Shakespeare's Cleopatra, a raced, gendered agent and receptacle of
fantasy. At the end, Ayanna Thompson reflects on the relational status
of the icon, suggesting that this collection demonstrates the extent to
which "These icons have lives that accrue meaning through
repetition, revision, and restaging."
Our performance reviews examine current theatrical embodiments of
Shakespeare's female icons. From the failure of the Globe Theatre
to confront Katherina's iconicity to Seana McKenna's Richard
III at Canada's Stratford Festival, our reviews cover some of the
most noteworthy productions of the past two years, including the New
York Public Theater's As You Like It and the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival. The book review section, edited by Professor Will Stockton,
addresses recent titles which are germane to this special issue.
Featured are a new edited collection on Elizabeth I and Kathryn
Schwarz's What You Will, as well as books by Stephen Greenblatt,
James Stone, Philip Davis, and edited collections by James Schiffer, and
Randall Martin and Katherine Scheil.
It has been a privilege to serve as editor of The Upstart Crow for
the past eight years. In spirit, the journal will be reborn under the
editorship of my colleague, Will Stockton, as an online, open access
journal entitled Upstart: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies,
independent of the university press The new journal will feature work on
Renaissance and early modern literature studies including Shakespeare
and will strive particularly to publish the work of younger and emerging
scholars, though it will continue to welcome the work of more
established scholars, as well. Will and I hope you will support Upstart
by sending us your submissions, recommending us to others, and most of
all, reading our content. Vol. 1, which will feature a cluster of essays
addressing the question "Is Shakespeare Our Only
Contemporary?" and will go live in the coming months. See p. 164
(below) for more details.
Elizabeth Rivlin, Editor
