Schedule / Horaire
Panel A: Tuesday 22 April 2014, 9h-10h30.
Panel B: Tuesday 22 April 2014, 11h-12h30.
Room: ENS, salle Dussane.
Leaders / Organisateurs
Christa Jansohn, University of Bamberg (Germany)
Dieter Mehl, University of Bonn (Germany)
Participants
- Andrew Dickson, Theatre Editor for the Guardian (UK)
National Poet or National Disgrace? Britain’s Tercentenary of 1864 - Marie-Clémence Régnier, Université Paris Sorbonne (France)
«Que peut donc le bronze là où est la gloire?» The French Jubilee in 1864: monuments and pilgrimage in Stratford in Victor Hugo’s William Shakespeare - Júlia Paraizs, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary)
Festive and Critical Approaches: Shakespeare’s Tercentenary (1864) in Hungary - Ann Jennalie Cook, Vanderbilt University (USA)
Commemorations Behind the Scenes - Alfredo Michel Modenessi, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico)
Latin America, 1964: Art and Politics in the Year of Celebrating Shakespeare - Mami Adachi, University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo (Japon)
Commemorating Shakespeare in Japan
Abstracts / Résumés
1. Andrew Dickson, Theatre Editor for the Guardian (UK)
National Poet or National Disgrace? Britain’s Tercentenary of 1864
This paper will discuss Britain’s 1864 tercentenary celebrations, and the fact that the “Great National Festival” to celebrate Shakespeare nearly turned into a national disgrace. In Stratford-upon-Avon, a gala performance of Hamlet was cancelled at the last minute, and a birthday procession through the capital ended in farce. The Times commented mournfully that “Shakespeare is not a whit more admired this year than he was last year”. Yet 1864 also became a turning point: the seeds of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre were planted, along with the now-traditional Birthday parade and luncheon, and the enthusiastic tercentenary celebrations in other countries convinced many to honour their native son more patriotically next time.
2. Marie-Clémence Régnier, Université Paris Sorbonne (France)
«Que peut donc le bronze là où est la gloire?» The French Jubilee in 1864: monuments and pilgrimage in Stratford in Victor Hugo’s William Shakespeare
France took part in Shakespeare’s celebrations in 1864 and sent a prominent Sorbonne teacher, Alfred Mézières, to Stratford, the writer’s birthplace in England. In the meantime, the old Romantic avant-garde gathers around Victor Hugo to honour one’s mentor. The Jubilee’s celebrations raise the question of the recognition of great writers as a cultural heritage property and of the raise of a cult around the Bard’s relics, houses and portraits. The presentation will focus on Victor Hugo’s analysis on that matter in the eponymous essay he devoted to William Shakespeare in 1864.
3. Júlia Paraizs, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary)
Festive and Critical Approaches: Shakespeare’s Tercentenary (1864) in Hungary
Júlia Paraizs will discuss the major Hungarian observance of the 1864 tercentenary, the first performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the National Theatre. Since the performance was followed by a tableau vivant called “The Apotheosis of Shakespeare”, the occasion has been best explained in terms of a semi-religious cult by Péter Dávidházi (1998). However, as the talk will argue, the festive framing of the tercentenary has actually concealed the critical intentions behind it. A look at the contemporary press reviews reveals that there was a heated debate on the choice of the play due to its problematic genre.
4. Ann Jennalie Cook, Vanderbilt University (USA)
Commemorations Behind the Scenes
This paper will deal with celebrations that involve Shakespeare but do not necessarily focus on his years of birth or death. It will include historical events like David Garrick’s 1796 Jubilee, as well as the Birthplace Trust’s commemoration in 1964. However, it will focus on little-known, behind-the-scenes aspects of these and other gatherings, most notably the World Congresses of the International Shakespeare Association, begun in 1971, continued in 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial and at five-year intervals thereafter, as well as the forty years of the annual meetings of the Shakespeare Association of America.
5. Alfredo Michel Modenessi, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico)
Latin America, 1964: Art and Politics in the Year of Celebrating Shakespeare
In Latin America, Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary didn’t prompt an entire year of ceremonies and activities but a modest array of events, with a touch of local colour. However, Shakespeare’s 400th provided the stimulus, or excuse, for professionals of cultural enterprises to use programs of the kind that the region’s governments have historically employed for co-opting critical voices. This paper explores possible ties between several events, artists, and contexts, as well as potential political implications thereof and therein, hoping to reach past circumstances and into the actual and symbolic uses and meaning of “Shakespeare” in the region then and beyond.
6. Mami Adachi, University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo (Japon)
Commemorating Shakespeare in Japan
The activities of the Shakespeare Society of Japan (SSJ) may be a factor behind the wide dissemination of Shakespeare in Japan today. The first SSJ was established on 23rd April, 1930, but encountered setbacks in the years before World War II—during which it finally ground to a halt. In 1961, it was reborn as the present SSJ, opening its doors to scholars, writers, and the general public, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2011. In placing the SSJ’s 1964 Shakespeare Jubilee in perspective, this paper will review the scholarly, educational and cultural role of the SSJ and related institutions.