OuterSpeares: Shakespeare, Intermedia, and the Limits of Adaptation ed. by Daniel Fischlin (review)

OuterSpeares: Shakespeare, Intermedia, and the Limits of Adaptation, edited by Daniel Fischlin, is a dynamic essay collection that marks the first book-length study devoted to Shakespeare adaptations within an intermedial theoretical framework. The edited collection brings together ten essays that explore a wide range of artists (William Shakespeare, Djanet Sears, Julie Taymor, Jay-Z) and media (film, music, radio, crafts). OuterSpeares offers a fitting complement to Fischlin's Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project (CASP) website and was inspired by an international graduate student conference at the University of Guelph in 2011. The book concentrates on how Shakespearean narratives travel in and across various media and cultures; the punning title, OuterSpeares, draws attention to the "outer spheres" of Shakespeare studies as the essays take us to traditional as well as non-traditional forms of adaptation.

Fischlin's substantial introduction begins by defining key terms, namely intermedia and adaptation, and by historicizing the use of new media to tell stories. While scholars (such as Linda Hutcheon, Julie Sanders, Robert Stam) have worked to offer a focused definition of adaptation, Fischlin acknowledges that he favors a broader theorization. This conscious expanding of adaptation theory is supported not only by the essays' range of critical frameworks (remediation, Theatre of the Oppressed, Derrida) and topics (YouTube, Prison Shakespeare, Mobile Apps) but also by the book's daring conclusion (written by Mark Fortier) that declares that "nothing you can do with Shakespeare would be beyond adaptation" (374). Although readers may find it difficult to pin down Fortier's "unlimited field in which the ways of adaptation always operate" (273), the argument for an "expansive" definition of adaptation is repeatedly supported and extended by the book's introduction, divergent essays, and conclusion. OuterSpeares opens up adaptation studies to the issue of intermediality while also expanding the core definitions of adaptation to support readings of "new media" as well as "the development of the 'new'" (373). The book's subtitle, then, is intentionally ironic as this essay collection boldly suggests that there are no limits to adaptation.

OuterSpeares is divided into four parts: 1) "Shakespeare in the New Media"; 2) "Shakespearean Adaptation and Film Intermedia"; 3) "TV, Radio, Popular Music, Theatre, and the Uses of Intermedia"; and 4) "The Limits of Adaptation?" Fischlin's introduction touches on a spectrum of case studies—including Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, De-ba-jehmu-jig's New World Brave, the Royal Shakespeare Company's Such Tweet Sorrow, the director Ing Kanjanavanit's Shakespeare Must Die, and the Sanders Portrait of Shakespeare—and these examples set up the diversity of the essays that follow.

In part one, "'Strange Invention': Shakespeare in the New Media," Christy Desmet's essay leads the book with an investigation of YouTube videos to argue that mashups draw in audiences through popular culture references more than through Shakespearean content. This essay, then, helps launch the book by countering the popular assumption that Shakespeare adaptations piggyback on his cultural and economic capital. Jennifer L. Ailles's "'Is There an App for That?': Mobile Shakespeare on the Phone and in the Cloud" makes up the other essay in this section and examines how these mobile adaptations of Shakespeare "alter the barriers among content creators, performers, audiences, and mobile users" (77). Ailles's chapter encourages readers to explore educational ereader apps (Shakespeare Pro) as well as entertainment-driven apps, such as Shakes Pear—Organic Shakespeare Quotes and Bard You, Ye Olde Insulter.

Part two, "'These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends': Shakespearean Adaptation and Film Intermedia," turns to Julie Taymor's film adaptation of The Tempest (in an essay by Don Moore) and the Shakespeare prison drama Mickey B (in an interview with Tom Magill and chapter by Fischlin and Jessica Riley). Moore's chapter elegantly argues that Taymor's The Tempest participates in a post-9/11 film genre with its tropes of terrorism and images of an imploding tower. According to Moore...