This collection theorizes the intersections between race, Shakespearean adaptation and pop culture. Chapters take a range of investigative approaches, some centring Shakespeare and others using Shakespeare to theorize pop culture, but all focusing on the ethical implications of the triangulation between Shakespeare, pop culture and race. Chapters explore the tensions between the ‘low’, racialized status of a pop culture form and Shakespeare’s ‘high’ status; the ways race informs a specific Shakespearean reference (in film, television, music, Young Adult literature and self-help manuals, among other forms); and the influence loop between Shakespeare and the systemic racism of creative industries, such as Hollywood and book publishing. As the analysis of race expands within Shakespeare studies, so too, this collection argues, should the archives for analyzing Shakespeare and race grow. While it is now more common to consider race and embodiment in both early modern and contemporary Shakespearean performance and adaptation, pop culture remains underexplored and undertheorized. As this collection demonstrates, rigorous theoretical and methodological approaches can illuminate how pop culture uses Shakespeare to uphold, contest and shape existing racial imaginaries for broad audiences.
