Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive:
Public Screenings and Fan Cult... more Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive: Public Screenings and Fan Culture in Japan", Pascale Aebischer, Susanne Greenhalgh, Laurie Osborne, ed., Shakespeare and the Live Theatre Broadcast Experience (Bloomsbury Arden, 2018), 177-84.
This chapter focuses on the response among women writers in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century B... more This chapter focuses on the response among women writers in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain to one of the original bad girls of English literature – Cleopatra in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Unlike other Shakespeare heroines, who are often young and tomboyish, the Bard’s Queen of Egypt is an experienced politician and a mature, voluptuous woman of ‘infinite variety’. In the broader classical and medieval literary tradition – which includes portrayals of Cleopatra ranging from the ‘fatale monstrum’ (fatal monster) of Horace’s Odes to the tragic lover in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women – Egypt’s final pharaoh attracted both praise and censure. For almost all writers she was beautiful – but for some of these authors she was constant and wise, while for others she was lascivious and ambitious. Shakespeare’s play incorporates these ‘good woman’ and ‘bad woman’ characteristics into one person, endowing the work with an intriguing complexity. In this chapter, I demonstrate that female writers after Shakespeare were both fascinated and troubled by the playwright’s seemingly evil yet exceptional heroine, and detail their difficult relationships with her ‘bad woman’ characteristics. Some authors condemn Cleopatra – Sarah Fielding’s The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia highlights her dishonesty. Others refuse to present Cleopatra as evil – Margaret Cavendish frames her as a political figure rather than a sexualised woman in The Worlds Olio. Still others were fascinated with Cleopatra as a femme fatale, and wrote fiction influenced by Shakespeare’s characterisation. For example, in The Royal Mischief, Delarivier Manley frames her ‘bad woman’ heroine Homais sympathetically by focusing on her suffering and rebellion in the face of male oppression. The varied responses of these writers to Antony and Cleopatra, demonstrated through their portrayals of powerful female characters, illustrate their different approaches to negotiating traditional gender norms in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British society.
Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 2020
This paper discusses how Japanese theatres have handled race in a country where hiring black acto... more This paper discusses how Japanese theatres have handled race in a country where hiring black actors to perform Shakespeare’s plays is not an option. In English-speaking regions, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, it is common to hire a black actor for Othello’s title role. Blackface is increasingly unacceptable because it reminds viewers of derogatory stereotypes in minstrel shows, and it deprives black actors of employment opportunities. However, the situation is different in regions where viewers are unfamiliar with this Anglo-US trend. In Japan, a country regarded as so homogeneous that its census does not have any questions about ethnicity, it is almost impossible to hire a skilled black actor to play a title role in a Shakespearean play, and few theatre companies would consider such an idea. In this cultural context, there is an underlying question of how Japanese-speaking theatre should present plays dealing with racial or cultural differences. This paper seeks ...
Supplementary material to support publication in Palgrave Communications. Appendix 1: List of pre... more Supplementary material to support publication in Palgrave Communications. Appendix 1: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the British Library, including adaptations and anthologies Appendix 2: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, including adaptations, excluding complete works Appendix 3: List of Shakespeare's Folios in Meisei Shakespeare Folio Collection Appendix 4: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the Senate House Library, including adaptations and anthologies Appendix 5: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the University of Glasgow Library, including adaptations and anthologies Appendix 6: List of the pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works associated with women before the nineteenth century in the Folger Shakespeare Librar
Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive: Public Screenings and... more Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive: Public Screenings and Fan Culture in Japan", Pascale Aebischer, Susanne Greenhalgh, Laurie Osborne, ed., Shakespeare and the Live Theatre Broadcast Experience (Bloomsbury Arden, 2018), 177-84.
The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an ea... more The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an early stage in the canonisation of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare, one of the popular playwrights in English Renaissance theatre, became increasingly famous during the first half of the eighteenth century, and the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769 marked the climax of the popularisation of his works. It is said that since then, he has maintained his position as the ‘national poet’ of England (or Britain). Although women had supported Shakespeare even before his works had established their canonical status, the extent to which female interpreters contributed to the canonisation of Shakespeare, how they participated in the process, and why they played the roles that they did have not yet been sufficiently visible. In this thesis, I illustrate women’s engagement in the process of the popularisation of Shakespeare by examining the early reception of his works, and to document how individual women’...
Kitamura Sae, "How Should You Perform and Watch Othello and Hairspray in a Country Where You Coul... more Kitamura Sae, "How Should You Perform and Watch Othello and Hairspray in a Country Where You Could Never Hire Black Actors? Shakespeare and Casting in Japan", 22 (2020): 87-101.
The aim of this article is to understand women’s intellectual activities involving Shakespeare’s ... more The aim of this article is to understand women’s intellectual activities involving Shakespeare’s playbooks by analysing their various book-related activities, such as annotating, editing, signing and attaching ex libris to books. Although researchers have increasingly recognized women’s participation in the canonization of Shakespeare, ex libris and book users’ signatures, unlike other resources, have not been systematically studied in relation to gender. Discreet observations and evaluations, typified by reading, are rarely appreciated as a participatory or creative process. However, it is hoped that this study focusing on women’s use of Shakespeare’s playbooks will give a voice to these seemingly quiet interpreters. For primary sources, more than 800 pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare’s playbooks held in major libraries throughout the world, including the British Library and Folger Shakespeare Library, were consulted. This research shows that women were actively involved in book-related activities; for example, they exchanged Shakespeare’s playbooks as gifts and preserved rare copies as family treasures. Some female readers even annotated Shakespeare’s works earlier than believed, approximately 40 years before the publication of Harriet Bowdler’s The Family Shakespeare in 1807. This article is published as part of a collection to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeareâs death.
The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an ea... more The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an early stage in the canonisation of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare, one of the popular playwrights in English Renaissance theatre, became increasingly famous during the first half of the eighteenth century, and the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769 marked the climax of the popularisation of his works. It is said that since then, he has maintained his position as the ‘national poet’ of England (or Britain). Although women had supported Shakespeare even before his works had established their canonical status, the extent to which female interpreters contributed to the canonisation of Shakespeare, how they participated in the process, and why they played the roles that they did have not yet been sufficiently visible. In this thesis, I illustrate women’s engagement in the process of the popularisation of Shakespeare by examining the early reception of his works, and to document how individual women’s pleasure of reading and playgoing relates to their intellectual activities. I adopt three approaches to provide answers to my research questions in this thesis: reading critical and fictional works by women; analysing the descriptions of female readers and playgoers by male writers; and conducting a large-scale survey of the ownership history of pre-mid-eighteenth-century printed books of Shakespeare’s plays. This thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, I analyse women’s engagement with theatre in Renaissance England, and consider Shakespeare’s popularity amongst them based on records about female audiences. The second chapter discusses female readers and writers in Renaissance England and their responses to Shakespeare’s works. Chapter 3 focuses on Restoration Shakespeare and female interpreters from 1642 to 1714. The fourth chapter discusses women’s playgoing, play-reading, writings, and their participation from the early eighteenth century to the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769.
Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive:
Public Screenings and Fan Cult... more Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive: Public Screenings and Fan Culture in Japan", Pascale Aebischer, Susanne Greenhalgh, Laurie Osborne, ed., Shakespeare and the Live Theatre Broadcast Experience (Bloomsbury Arden, 2018), 177-84.
This chapter focuses on the response among women writers in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century B... more This chapter focuses on the response among women writers in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain to one of the original bad girls of English literature – Cleopatra in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Unlike other Shakespeare heroines, who are often young and tomboyish, the Bard’s Queen of Egypt is an experienced politician and a mature, voluptuous woman of ‘infinite variety’. In the broader classical and medieval literary tradition – which includes portrayals of Cleopatra ranging from the ‘fatale monstrum’ (fatal monster) of Horace’s Odes to the tragic lover in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women – Egypt’s final pharaoh attracted both praise and censure. For almost all writers she was beautiful – but for some of these authors she was constant and wise, while for others she was lascivious and ambitious. Shakespeare’s play incorporates these ‘good woman’ and ‘bad woman’ characteristics into one person, endowing the work with an intriguing complexity. In this chapter, I demonstrate that female writers after Shakespeare were both fascinated and troubled by the playwright’s seemingly evil yet exceptional heroine, and detail their difficult relationships with her ‘bad woman’ characteristics. Some authors condemn Cleopatra – Sarah Fielding’s The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia highlights her dishonesty. Others refuse to present Cleopatra as evil – Margaret Cavendish frames her as a political figure rather than a sexualised woman in The Worlds Olio. Still others were fascinated with Cleopatra as a femme fatale, and wrote fiction influenced by Shakespeare’s characterisation. For example, in The Royal Mischief, Delarivier Manley frames her ‘bad woman’ heroine Homais sympathetically by focusing on her suffering and rebellion in the face of male oppression. The varied responses of these writers to Antony and Cleopatra, demonstrated through their portrayals of powerful female characters, illustrate their different approaches to negotiating traditional gender norms in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British society.
Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 2020
This paper discusses how Japanese theatres have handled race in a country where hiring black acto... more This paper discusses how Japanese theatres have handled race in a country where hiring black actors to perform Shakespeare’s plays is not an option. In English-speaking regions, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, it is common to hire a black actor for Othello’s title role. Blackface is increasingly unacceptable because it reminds viewers of derogatory stereotypes in minstrel shows, and it deprives black actors of employment opportunities. However, the situation is different in regions where viewers are unfamiliar with this Anglo-US trend. In Japan, a country regarded as so homogeneous that its census does not have any questions about ethnicity, it is almost impossible to hire a skilled black actor to play a title role in a Shakespearean play, and few theatre companies would consider such an idea. In this cultural context, there is an underlying question of how Japanese-speaking theatre should present plays dealing with racial or cultural differences. This paper seeks ...
Supplementary material to support publication in Palgrave Communications. Appendix 1: List of pre... more Supplementary material to support publication in Palgrave Communications. Appendix 1: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the British Library, including adaptations and anthologies Appendix 2: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, including adaptations, excluding complete works Appendix 3: List of Shakespeare's Folios in Meisei Shakespeare Folio Collection Appendix 4: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the Senate House Library, including adaptations and anthologies Appendix 5: List of pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works in the University of Glasgow Library, including adaptations and anthologies Appendix 6: List of the pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare's works associated with women before the nineteenth century in the Folger Shakespeare Librar
Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive: Public Screenings and... more Kitamura Sae, "The Curious Incident of Shakespeare Fans in NTLive: Public Screenings and Fan Culture in Japan", Pascale Aebischer, Susanne Greenhalgh, Laurie Osborne, ed., Shakespeare and the Live Theatre Broadcast Experience (Bloomsbury Arden, 2018), 177-84.
The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an ea... more The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an early stage in the canonisation of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare, one of the popular playwrights in English Renaissance theatre, became increasingly famous during the first half of the eighteenth century, and the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769 marked the climax of the popularisation of his works. It is said that since then, he has maintained his position as the ‘national poet’ of England (or Britain). Although women had supported Shakespeare even before his works had established their canonical status, the extent to which female interpreters contributed to the canonisation of Shakespeare, how they participated in the process, and why they played the roles that they did have not yet been sufficiently visible. In this thesis, I illustrate women’s engagement in the process of the popularisation of Shakespeare by examining the early reception of his works, and to document how individual women’...
Kitamura Sae, "How Should You Perform and Watch Othello and Hairspray in a Country Where You Coul... more Kitamura Sae, "How Should You Perform and Watch Othello and Hairspray in a Country Where You Could Never Hire Black Actors? Shakespeare and Casting in Japan", 22 (2020): 87-101.
The aim of this article is to understand women’s intellectual activities involving Shakespeare’s ... more The aim of this article is to understand women’s intellectual activities involving Shakespeare’s playbooks by analysing their various book-related activities, such as annotating, editing, signing and attaching ex libris to books. Although researchers have increasingly recognized women’s participation in the canonization of Shakespeare, ex libris and book users’ signatures, unlike other resources, have not been systematically studied in relation to gender. Discreet observations and evaluations, typified by reading, are rarely appreciated as a participatory or creative process. However, it is hoped that this study focusing on women’s use of Shakespeare’s playbooks will give a voice to these seemingly quiet interpreters. For primary sources, more than 800 pre-1769 copies of Shakespeare’s playbooks held in major libraries throughout the world, including the British Library and Folger Shakespeare Library, were consulted. This research shows that women were actively involved in book-related activities; for example, they exchanged Shakespeare’s playbooks as gifts and preserved rare copies as family treasures. Some female readers even annotated Shakespeare’s works earlier than believed, approximately 40 years before the publication of Harriet Bowdler’s The Family Shakespeare in 1807. This article is published as part of a collection to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeareâs death.
The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an ea... more The aim of this thesis is to clarify the role that female interpreters in Britain played at an early stage in the canonisation of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare, one of the popular playwrights in English Renaissance theatre, became increasingly famous during the first half of the eighteenth century, and the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769 marked the climax of the popularisation of his works. It is said that since then, he has maintained his position as the ‘national poet’ of England (or Britain). Although women had supported Shakespeare even before his works had established their canonical status, the extent to which female interpreters contributed to the canonisation of Shakespeare, how they participated in the process, and why they played the roles that they did have not yet been sufficiently visible. In this thesis, I illustrate women’s engagement in the process of the popularisation of Shakespeare by examining the early reception of his works, and to document how individual women’s pleasure of reading and playgoing relates to their intellectual activities. I adopt three approaches to provide answers to my research questions in this thesis: reading critical and fictional works by women; analysing the descriptions of female readers and playgoers by male writers; and conducting a large-scale survey of the ownership history of pre-mid-eighteenth-century printed books of Shakespeare’s plays. This thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, I analyse women’s engagement with theatre in Renaissance England, and consider Shakespeare’s popularity amongst them based on records about female audiences. The second chapter discusses female readers and writers in Renaissance England and their responses to Shakespeare’s works. Chapter 3 focuses on Restoration Shakespeare and female interpreters from 1642 to 1714. The fourth chapter discusses women’s playgoing, play-reading, writings, and their participation from the early eighteenth century to the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769.
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Books by Sae KITAMURA
Public Screenings and Fan Culture in Japan", Pascale Aebischer, Susanne Greenhalgh, Laurie Osborne, ed., Shakespeare and the Live Theatre Broadcast Experience (Bloomsbury Arden, 2018), 177-84.
Papers by Sae KITAMURA
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%88%A9%E7%94%A8%E8%80%85:%E3%81%95%E3%81%88%E3%81%BC%E3%83%BC/%E8%8B%B1%E6%97%A5%E7%BF%BB%E8%A8%B3%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%82%AD%E3%83%9A%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E9%A4%8A%E6%88%90%E3%82%BB%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC
This thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, I analyse women’s engagement with theatre in Renaissance England, and consider Shakespeare’s popularity amongst them based on records about female audiences. The second chapter discusses female readers and writers in Renaissance England and their responses to Shakespeare’s works. Chapter 3 focuses on Restoration Shakespeare and female interpreters from 1642 to 1714. The fourth chapter discusses women’s playgoing, play-reading, writings, and their participation from the early eighteenth century to the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769.
Public Screenings and Fan Culture in Japan", Pascale Aebischer, Susanne Greenhalgh, Laurie Osborne, ed., Shakespeare and the Live Theatre Broadcast Experience (Bloomsbury Arden, 2018), 177-84.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%88%A9%E7%94%A8%E8%80%85:%E3%81%95%E3%81%88%E3%81%BC%E3%83%BC/%E8%8B%B1%E6%97%A5%E7%BF%BB%E8%A8%B3%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%82%AD%E3%83%9A%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E9%A4%8A%E6%88%90%E3%82%BB%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC
This thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, I analyse women’s engagement with theatre in Renaissance England, and consider Shakespeare’s popularity amongst them based on records about female audiences. The second chapter discusses female readers and writers in Renaissance England and their responses to Shakespeare’s works. Chapter 3 focuses on Restoration Shakespeare and female interpreters from 1642 to 1714. The fourth chapter discusses women’s playgoing, play-reading, writings, and their participation from the early eighteenth century to the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769.