Introduction
摘要
This book is the first comprehensive study on “intercultural feminism,” a feminist critical practice rooted in theories and praxes of intercultural theatre and gender studies that emphasises positionality. Intercultural feminism refers to diverse, intersubjective readings of gender performativity in theatre productions across various contexts that emerge through intercultural negotiations between personal viewpoints and those represented by the communities that produce and receive the productions. This book focuses on productions of Shakespeare’s plays in East and Southeast Asia, offering new insights into female subjectivities on stage and the experiences of theatre practitioners in staging gender, challenging dominant Anglophone feminist perspectives by placing them in dialogue with diverse performances of gender. Comparative analyses of these productions reveal the extent to which gender is a central modality through which intercultural practices re-contextualise Shakespeare’s works via directors’ negotiations with their respective local theatre forms and performance contexts. Through interviews with practitioners and discursive engagement with feminist performance theories, I identify artistic principles for staging gender interculturally and propose intercultural feminism as a critical praxis for encountering these non-Anglophone Shakespeare productions.