Shakespeare after Mass Media (review)

There's a lot to like about this volume. All of the individual essays are strong, and the writing is generally very lively. The variety of the material addressed is remarkable, as is the level of erudition displayed by the contributors, if erudition is the right word to use in connection with studies of comic books, musical comedies, and theme parks. Even more striking, however, is the thematic unity and organic coherence of the larger project. The collection sets a high standard for collaborative work, and this may be its most important contribution. While it is impossible in a brief review to do full justice to each one of the contributions, I'd like to state for the record that I have no serious fault to find with any of the essays in this volume; and instead of singling out particular items for special praise or blame, I prefer to enter into the book's spirit of collaboration and comment here on some of the larger issues it raises.

All of the essays acknowledge or make reference to the recent "explosion" of Shakespearean reference, parody, adaptation and other forms of derivative creativity into contemporary mass media. Laurie E. Osborne's essay, "Harlequin Presents: That '70s Shakespeare and Beyond," begins with a detailed list of examples of this phenomenon. Osborne is careful not to describe this trend as something particularly new or recent. Still, the impression persists that the process has accelerated over the past decade. Part of the explanation for this might be that there are simply more observers and therefore more observations of Shakespeare turning up in various mass media. But is it really true that there has been a dramatic increase in Shakespearean adaptation and parody in contemporary mass media? As the Lord High Constable of France famously asked the messenger, "Who hath measur'd the ground?" The issue here is one of cultural demographics and taste communities. Donald K. Hedrick addresses this topic in his detailed lead-off chapter, "Bardguides of the New Universe: Niche Marketing and the Cultural Logic of Late Shakespeareanism." Hedrick's treatment of market strategies and target audiences is very savvy, though his conclusions are rather depressing, lingering on the general deterioration of social coherence as manifested in the larger cultural landscape. Mark Thornton Burnett's essay, "'We are the makers of manners': The Branagh Phenomenon," is a nice follow-up to Hedrick's piece, bringing out the reasons for Branagh's success in the cultural marketplace instead of just denouncing him for his complicity with Thatcherism.

The discussion of niche marketing and of the Branagh phenomenon establishes that Shakespeare in or after mass media is not well explained either as a culturally unifying force or as an insidious form of cultural assimilation, and still less so as a general program of ideological mobilization. Fran Teague's essay, "Shakespeare, Beard of Avon," provides a sympathetic description of the Broadway audience and reveals a genuine appreciation for American musical comedy. Stephen M. Buhler's "Reviving Juliet, Repackaging Romeo: Transformations of Character in Pop and Post-Pop Music" effectively continues the discussion in terms of pop music and the youth audience. It also offers some astute reflections on the topic of character. And as Craig Dionne nicely shows in "The Shatnerification of Shakespeare: Star Trek and the Commonplace Tradition," there is even a customized Shakespeare for Trekkies. What's great about the essays is the way they simply refuse to condescend to the audiences for these hybrid cultural goods and services. This is perhaps best illustrated in Osborne's witty and sensitive account of Shakespeare's participation in the genre of the Harlequin romance. Her essay quietly insists that there is something much more profound going on here than false consciousness and interpellation. Consumers of this mass-produced fiction take pleasure in their reading, and Shakespeare affirms that pleasure in complex ways.

There is necessarily some blank space and unexplored territory on the map of Shakespeare in the...