Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Cultural Authority Open Access

Abstract

Orson Welles began his professional directing career with a still famous theatrical adaptation of Macbeth in 1936, and he returned to Shakespeare frequently throughout his professional life. This dissertation revises traditional accounts of Welles's Shakespearean productions by expounding their international, intercultural, and intermedial dimensions, which are inextricably bound up with authorial and authority dynamics. The chapters span Welles's Shakespearean oeuvre by centering on his first and last completed, professional productions of Shakespeare: Voodoo Macbeth, the 1936, Federal Theatre Project, Harlem Negro Unit production; and Chimes at Midnight, Welles's 1965 cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's Henriad.

My first chapter reveals the overlooked religio-political charge of Voodoo Macbeth, which linked 1930s black Harlem to revolutionary Haiti through the Afro-Haitian religion of Vodou. Through its presentation of Vodou, I argue, the production inspired political resistance to racial oppression as well as an interest in shared African heritage in the Americas. The second chapter reflects on how the vicissitudes of "Shakespearean" authorship show up in early reviews of Voodoo Macbeth to suggest a more inclusive view of what counts as "Shakespearean." My third chapter shifts into discussion of Chimes at Midnight, arguing that the film challenged the communally galvanizing propaganda of Laurence Olivier's 1944 film of Henry V, on one hand, and the elitist, individualist propaganda President John F. Kennedy used to promote U.S. military recruitment during the early years of the Vietnam conflict, on the other. The fourth chapter demonstrates how Chimes at Midnight strategically thematizes its intermedial dynamics in order to privilege the cinematic image as the dominant artistic mode. The dissertation ends with a Coda outlining the key international issues at stake in the shooting locations and cast and crew dynamics of Welles's 1952 film of Othello.

Table of Contents

Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Cultural Authority

Table of Contents

Introduction: ………………………………………………………………………………1

Chapter One:……………………………………………………………………………..39

Vodou Macbeth

Chapter Two:…………………………………………………………………………….90

The Opposition to Wartime Propaganda in Chimes at Midnight

Chapter Three:………………………………………………………………………….120

But What is "Shakespeare?" Shakespearean In-Authenticity in Vodou Macbeth

Chapter Four:…………………………………………………………………………...137

Intermediality in Chimes at Midnight

Coda…………………………………………………………………………………….169

Intercultural Connections and Colonial Contact: Contextualizing Welles's Othello

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….182

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	English
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Literature, English Cinema Theater
Keyword	Voodoo Macbeth Authority Vodou Chimes at Midnight Othello Shakespeare Orson Welles
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Cahill, Patricia, Emory University
Committee Members	Oeler, Karla, Emory University Reed, Walter L, Emory University

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