The Merchant of Venice (Retried)
Whether you’ve encountered his celebrated verse-dramas (such as Whylah Falls or Québécité) or the lush, animated language of his poetry, it is not difficult to recognize George Elliott Clarke’s affinity for the genius of William Shakespeare. In this new work, Clarke borrows brazenly from and rewrites (The Bard’s very own working method) one of Shakespeare’s most contentious comedies, The Merchant of Venice, reinvigorating a play that on many points seems “retrograde politically and retarding dramatically”. The result is a spectacle of swinging lyricism that casts Jewish Shylock not as the villain, but as the victim of the ingrained bigotry of the Venetian State.
George Elliott Clarke is a poet, playwright and scholar born in Windsor, Nova Scotia.
Other publications from this author include:
- Portia White: A Portrait in Words (2019)
- Locating Home: The First African-Canadian Novel and Verse Collections (2018)
- These Are the Words (2018)
- Canticles I: (MMXVII) (2017)
- The Motorcyclist (2017)
- Canticles I: (MMXVI) (2016)
- Gold (2016)
- Extra Illicit Sonnets (2015)
- Traverse (2014)
- Illicit Sonnets (2013)
- Lasso the Wind: Aurelia's Verses and other Poems (2013)
- Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature (2011)
- Red (2011)
- I & I (2009)
- Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke (2008)
- Trudeau: Long March & Shining Path (2007)
- Black (2006)
- Illuminated Verses (2005)
- George and Rue (2005)
- Quebecite (2003)
- Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature (2002)
- Execution Poems : The Black Acadian Tragedy of George and Rue (2001)
- Blue (2001)
- Blue II (2001)
- Gold Indigoes (1999)
- Whylah Falls: A Play (1999)
- Beatrice Chancy (1999)
- Eyeing the North Star: Directions in African-Canadian Literature (1997)
- Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems : 1978-1993 (1994)
- Fire on the Water: An Anthology of Black Nova Scotian Writing, Volume Two (1992)
- Whylah Falls (1990)