Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race
- The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Note on Shakespeare Editions
- Chapter 1 Did the Concept of Race Exist for Shakespeare and His Contemporaries?
- Chapter 2 The Materials of Race
- Chapter 3 Barbarian Moors
- Chapter 4 Racist Humor and Shakespearean Comedy
- Chapter 5 Race in Shakespeare’s Histories
- Chapter 6 Race in Shakespeare’s Tragedies
- Chapter 7 Experimental Othello
- Chapter 8 Flesh and Blood
- Chapter 9 Was Sexuality Racialized for Shakespeare?
- Chapter 10 The Tempest and Early Modern Conceptions of Race
- Chapter 11 Shakespeare, Race, and Globalization
- Chapter 12 How to Think Like Ira Aldridge
- Chapter 13 What Is the History of Actors of Color Performing in Shakespeare in the UK?
- Chapter 14 Actresses of Color and Shakespearean Performance
- Chapter 15 Othello
- Chapter 16 Are Shakespeare’s Plays Racially Progressive?
- Chapter 17 How Have Post-Colonial Approaches Enriched Shakespeare’s Works?
- Chapter 18 Is It Possible to Read Shakespeare through Critical White Studies?
- Further Reading
- Index
- References
Chapter 12 - How to Think Like Ira Aldridge
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2021
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Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race
- The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Note on Shakespeare Editions
- Chapter 1 Did the Concept of Race Exist for Shakespeare and His Contemporaries?
- Chapter 2 The Materials of Race
- Chapter 3 Barbarian Moors
- Chapter 4 Racist Humor and Shakespearean Comedy
- Chapter 5 Race in Shakespeare’s Histories
- Chapter 6 Race in Shakespeare’s Tragedies
- Chapter 7 Experimental Othello
- Chapter 8 Flesh and Blood
- Chapter 9 Was Sexuality Racialized for Shakespeare?
- Chapter 10 The Tempest and Early Modern Conceptions of Race
- Chapter 11 Shakespeare, Race, and Globalization
- Chapter 12 How to Think Like Ira Aldridge
- Chapter 13 What Is the History of Actors of Color Performing in Shakespeare in the UK?
- Chapter 14 Actresses of Color and Shakespearean Performance
- Chapter 15 Othello
- Chapter 16 Are Shakespeare’s Plays Racially Progressive?
- Chapter 17 How Have Post-Colonial Approaches Enriched Shakespeare’s Works?
- Chapter 18 Is It Possible to Read Shakespeare through Critical White Studies?
- Further Reading
- Index
- References
Summary
We remember Ira Aldridge today as the first black Shakespearean to achieve international professional renown. Indeed, he’s the first American actor to do so. Throughout his life Aldridge was lauded with awards. Born to free blacks in New York at the turn of the nineteenth century, naturalized as a British citizen in 1863, and buried in Łódź, Poland in 1867, Aldridge’s cosmopolitan life was marked by triumphs as well as persistent racist responses to his performances. His cosmopolitan career spanned three continents and countless theatres. This essay surveys seven of Ira Aldridge’s strategies for succeeding on the nineteenth-century stage: educate; emulate; circulate; nominate; innovate; disseminate; elaborate. Such strategies can still inspire us, students, performers, scholars, artists, teachers, and innovators alike.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race , pp. 175 - 189Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
References
Elaborate
Andrews, C.B., Ebony, Black –The Diaries, Letters and Criticism: The Story of Ira Aldridge (Known as the African Roscius) (Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University).Google Scholar
Dewberry, Jonathan, “The African Grove Theatre and Company,” Black American Literature Forum 16/4 (1982): 128–31.Google Scholar
Howard, Tony, and Wilcox, Zoë, “‘Haply, for I am black’: The Legacy of Ira Aldridge,” in Shakespeare in Ten Acts, ed. McMullan, Gordon and Wilcox, Zoë (London: British Library, 2016), 121–40.Google Scholar
Kujawinska Courtney, Krystyna, and Lukowska, Maria (eds.), Ira Aldridge 1807–1867: The Great Shakespearean Tragedian on the Bicentennial Anniversary of His Birth (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009).Google Scholar
Kujawinska Courtney, Krystyna, “Ira Aldridge, Shakespeare, and Color-Conscious Performances in Nineteenth Century Europe,” in Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance, ed. Thompson, Ayanna (New York and London: Routledge, 2006), 103–22.Google Scholar
Lindfors, Bernth (ed.), Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius (University of Rochester Press, 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, Joyce Green, “Acting Black: Othello, Othello Burlesques, and the Performance of Blackness,” Theatre Journal 46 (1994): 231–49.Google Scholar
Malone, Mary, Actor in Exile: The Life of Ira Aldridge (London: Cromwell-Collier Press, 1969).Google Scholar
Marshall, Herbert, Further Research on Ira Aldridge, the Negro Tragedian (Center for Soviet and East European Studies, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1973).Google Scholar
Roberts, Brian Russell, “A London Legacy of Ira Aldridge: Henry Francis Downing and the Paratheatrical Poetics of Plot and Cast(e),” Modern Drama 55/3 (Fall 2012): 386–40.Google Scholar
Walters, Hazel, “Ira Aldridge and the Battlefield of Race,” Race and Class 45/1 (2003): 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar