Making Sense of Shakespeare: a Cultural Icon for Contemporary Audiences

Olsson, MR

Making Sense of Shakespeare: a Cultural Icon for Contemporary Audiences

Olsson, MR

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Publisher:: UTS
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2013, 5 (3), pp. 14 - 31
Issue Date:: 2013-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Olsson, MR https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2814-0876	en_US
dc.date.issued	2013-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2013, 5 (3), pp. 14 - 31	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1837-5391	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26561
dc.description.abstract	The works of William Shakespeare are more popular in the 21st century than ever before. Why are theatre and audiences around the globe still drawn to his work? How do they make sense of these texts in ways that resonate with their cosmopolitan, contemporary audiences? This article uses the findings of a study interviewing 35 theatre professionals in Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom to explore these issues. Theoretically and methodologically, it is a bricolage, drawing on a range of approaches including Foucaults discourse analysis, and Hobsbawms invented traditions to understand participants sense-making as a social practice. It argues that attempting to understand the significance of a major cultural icon such as Shakespeare in contemporary cosmopolitan civil society needs to recognise the many meanings, roles and significances that surround him and that this complexity makes it unlikely that any one theoretical lens will prove adequate on its own.	en_US
dc.publisher	UTS	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.5130/ccs.v5i3.3640	en_US
dc.title	Making Sense of Shakespeare: a Cultural Icon for Contemporary Audiences	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	3	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	5	en_US
utslib.for	1603 Demography	en_US
utslib.for	15 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services	en_US
utslib.for	16 Studies in Human Society	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/IKM and Digital Studies Program
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	3	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	5	en_US

Abstract:

The works of William Shakespeare are more popular in the 21st century than ever before. Why are theatre and audiences around the globe still drawn to his work? How do they make sense of these texts in ways that resonate with their cosmopolitan, contemporary audiences? This article uses the findings of a study interviewing 35 theatre professionals in Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom to explore these issues. Theoretically and methodologically, it is a bricolage, drawing on a range of approaches including Foucaults discourse analysis, and Hobsbawms invented traditions to understand participants sense-making as a social practice. It argues that attempting to understand the significance of a major cultural icon such as Shakespeare in contemporary cosmopolitan civil society needs to recognise the many meanings, roles and significances that surround him and that this complexity makes it unlikely that any one theoretical lens will prove adequate on its own.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26561