Investigating the literary culture of the early interaction between European countries and East Africa, Edward Wilson-Lee uncovers an extraordinary sequence of stories in which explorers, railway labourers, decadent émigrés, freedom fighters, and pioneering African leaders made Shakespeare their own in this alien land.Investigating the literary culture of the early interaction between European countries and East Africa, Edward Wilson-Lee uncovers an extraordinary sequence of stories in which explorers, railway labourers, decadent émigrés, freedom fighters, and pioneering African leaders made Shakespeare their own in this alien land.Exploring the unexpected history of Shakespeare’s global legacy, Shakespeare in Swahililand is a breathtaking combination of travel, history, biography and satire. It traces Shakespeare’s influence in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya – where Cambridge lecturer Edward Wilson-Lee was raised.From Victorian expeditions in which the Bard’s works were the sole reading material, Wilson-Lee shows how Shakespeare’s works have been a vital touchstone throughout the region. The Plays were printed by liberated slaves as one of the first texts in Swahili, performed by Indian labourers while they built the Uganda Railway, used to argue for native rights, and translated by intellectuals, revolutionaries and independence leaders. Revealing how great works can provide a key insight into modern history, these stories investigate the astonishing poignancy of beauty out of place.‘Wilson-Lee’s account of his East African Shakespeare-hunt is vivid and full of insights’ Independent‘It has successfully told a lesser-known story of Africa, and it is a story worth knowing’ Economist‘Part memoir, part weird and wonderful history of Shakespeare in East Africa’ Telegraph‘A perceptive and entertaining guide to the Bard’s reception in Swahililand’ Literary Review‘Wilson-Lee goes in search of Shakespeare in Africa and finds him entwined in every twist and turn of the drama of colonization and decolonization of the continent from the 17th century to the present. The result is a masterly literary detective adventure’ Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o‘I thought nothing could surprise me about the impact of England’s greatest cultural figure, but this fascinating, readable book about his influence in East Africa certainly did’ The LadyHaving grown up in Kenya and Switzerland, with periods living in Mexico, Zimbabwe, and the United States, Edward Wilson-Lee now lives in Cambridge, where he teaches Renaissance literature and is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. His research focuses on books, libraries, and travel, which during this project has involved journeys to and through Spain, Italy, India, and the Caribbean. He is the author of Shakespeare in Swahililand and The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, which won the Pen Hessell-Tiltman Prize.- 2016 will mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. A season to celebrate Shakespeare is planned with books, performances, TV documentaries. Shakespeare in Swahililand will offer a fresh, original take on the greatness of the Bard.- ‘Shakespeare in Swahililand’ does something other than cover the tired, well-trodden ground of Shakespeare’s biography: it opens up new ways of understanding Shakespeare’s most familiar plays, making the startling conclusions without scholarly jargon, through compelling stories.- Books like ‘Hare with the Amber Eyes’ have demonstrated that the potential of unfamiliar topics and new ways of looking at culture in an accessible and compelling style.- The book is also a very accessible introduction to the history of East Africa, filling the reader in as it goes along, and so has potential to appeal also to the more general popular history market.- ‘1599’ (86k) and ‘Soul of the Age’ (12k) have prove the healthy public appetite for books on Shakespeare.- There are also a large number of present and former English students, here and abroad, to whom the subject has massive appeal.
Publicat de: HarperCollins Publishers