Introduction: Whither Shakespop? Taking Stock of Shakespeare in Popular Culture

Abstract

I saw my first Hamlet when I was about eight. It was a musical adaptation, set to Bizet's Carmen. To emphasize the indecisive nature of Hamlet, Gilligan was cast in the title role. Mr. and Mrs. Howell played Claudius and Gertrude, Ginger was totally miscast as Ophelia, and the Skipper's Polonius gave fatherly advice to Mary Ann's Laertes. Even now, whenever I hear Bizet's Toreador Song, I sing: Neither a borrower, nor a lender be. Do not forget-stay out of debt.The successful comic integration of this lowbrow American sitcom with Hamlet is indicative of the familiar relationship American culture has with the shreds and patches of this complex tragedy, its strong identification with a collection of cultural signfiers, often independent of any real understanding of the play as a unified text. As Michael Bristol writes: Shakespeare's name, together with his image, has extraordinary currency at a time when the practice of reading and careful study of his works appears to be in decline (1996, 4).Annalisa Castaldo (co-guest editor of this issue) and I began our work interrogating position in American popular culture nine years ago, when we put together a panel for the West Virginia Shakepeare Conference. Annalisa and I came to our studies from complementary positions: Annalisa is a Renaissance scholar, specializing in film; I study American culture, drawing on my previous experience as a theater administrator. Both of us had problems squaring with our own experiences Lawrence Levine's characterization of position in twentieth-century America as solely highbrow, a position that he documented first in his 1984 essay William and the American People: A Study in Cultural Transformation and then more fully in his 1990 book Highbrow /Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierachy in America. Despite his thorough research, the picture seemed somehow incomplete. Annalisa was well aware that Capt. James T. Kirk (and the writers of Star Trek) shared her affinity for Shakespeare, and that the Bard's presence was accepted by the series' fans. Rebecca Steinberger (a valuable reader for this collection) also joined us on this panel, discussing further examples of Shakespearean sci-fi; in the discussion that followed, the scholars and teachers debated the value of appropriations: did it move beyond the famous quotes? did the appropriating authors know beyond their forced high school experience? had replaced the Bible as the common moral source? were these new texts re-energized or the equivalent of bad quartos or the Restoration's bowdlerized versions? and of particular importance, can popularized aid in the teaching of or does it merely create new challenges? Over the past eight years, the Shakespeare in Popular area has attracted 3-4 panels each year at both the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference and the Popular Culture/American Culture Conference where scholars have continued to examine Shakespeare-infused texts, and asking these and further questions about the significance of the growing presence of in popular culture, particularly in North America. Frequent and key presenters at these conferences have included Michael Marier, the other tireless reader for this collection, and the duo Kim Fedderson and J. Michael Richardson, who consistently and interestingly represented the Canadian perspective. The essays that comprise this special issue of College Literature both represent and extend these conversations with which I have been privileged to participate.This introductory essay will trace the roots of integration into current popular culture and the American imagination, and the challenge to define the Bard's position as we move into the twenty-first century.The Return of the GroundlingsLawrence Levine documents how during the first part of the twentieth century American popular culture excluded the Bard, relegating him to distinct theatrical productions in select, major cities, attended by well-behaved, passive, highbrow audiences. …