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16 - Blackness and Whiteness in The Magic Flute: Reflections from Shakespeare Studies

from Part III - Approaches and Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2023

By
Adeline Mueller
Edited by
Jessica Waldoff
Jessica Waldoff
Affiliation:
College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
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Summary

In this chapter, I consider how we might address the legacies of race and racism in The Magic Flute and its performance history, and what opportunities there might be to re-envision the Singspiel, by looking at parallels with Shakespeare repertory and #ShakeRace studies. Scholars working at the intersections of premodern critical race theory, postcolonial studies, Shakespeare studies, and performance studies have for decades considered how what Kim Hall calls “race thinking” permeates Shakespeare’s texts, contexts, and audiences, as well as productions and interpretations in our own time. What kind of freedom or flexibility might we have to adapt, translate, appropriate, and “unsettle” The Magic Flute in scholarship, performance, and pedagogy, by taking our cue from experimental approaches to Shakespeare?

Keywords

CalibanMonostatosOthelloperformanceraceracismShakespearewhiteness
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to The Magic Flute , pp. 252 - 272
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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