Global Performance and Local Reception: Teaching Hamlet and More in Singapore

When Emily Griffiths Jones taught a Shakespeare seminar in Singapore through MIT’s Global Shakespeares project, she found. In this context, normative Western patterns of interpretation are challenged, along with their assumptions of a “supposedly universalizing psychological realm.” The comparative deployment of digitally archived multicultural performances led students to engage with Shakespeare’s works in a way that “transcend[s] the myth of monolithic textual authority.” Through interpreting, comparing, and responding creatively to global Shakespeares (including making their own short films), students used Shakespearean performance to address social issues relevant to them, from immigration to LGBTQ rights.