UBT_TravKnowl2019 - Travelling Knowledge and Trans*textuality. African Sources in Shakespearean Drama

Shakespeare Source Studies has a strong tendency to focus on texts written in languages that Shakespeare is believed to have known how to read – Latin and English, of course, as well as Greek, Italian, French, and perhaps Spanish. So far, neither his knowledge of other languages nor non-English/European orality has received adequate attention. Apart from sporadic glances at English folktales (Artese 2015) and morality plays as well as Persian and Arabic (con)texts (Khairallah 2006, Al-Dab-bagh 2010, Avci 2016), Shakespeare Source Studies predominantly works within the fetters of a script-bound Eurocentric frame. Challenging this pattern, we wish to pursue the question whether and how African and East Asian (oral) literatures might have influenced Shakespearean drama. We wish to explore, theoretically, methodologically and empirically, how such relations can be substantiated and understood.