Cover not available
Part of
Shakespeare and Crisis: One hundred years of Italian narratives
Edited by Silvia Bigliazzi
[Shakespeare in European Culture 2] 2020
► pp. 175–211

Chapter 5
Allegorising and minoritising Richard III

Against the backdrop of widespread topical readings of Richard III as post-war allegories of totalitarianisms ‘reconciling’ us with painful memories of trauma and monstrosity, this chapter discusses Carmelo Bene’s experiment in minoritisation as a form of political disengagement but also political challenge. It reappraises Bene’s dialogue with Deleuze by situating his 1977 anti-theatrical experiment with Shakespeare’s play within the context of contemporary forms of theatrical contestation and, contrariwise, connivance with political power in the 1970s. Finally, it investigates Bene’s experimental minoritisation of Shakespeare’s history play by contrasting a subversive conception of history with official history, and to this end exploiting the dynamic resources of the eventfulness of the performance. It also assesses Bene’s own claimed anarchic way of transcending power games by examining his interpretation of ‘essential minority’ as opposed to ‘actual minority’ in relation to a notion of immanent politics that refuses transcendental justifications.
Keywords: Shakespeare’s Richard III, Carmelo Bene, Deleuze, minority theatre
Article outline
  • ‘Liberties’ and ‘travesties’
  • Allegorising Richard
  • Paradoxes of anarchic minoritisations
  • Undoing Richard: Bene against history
  • The unsaid
  • Intertextual assemblages
  • Deallegorising Richard
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 22 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sec.2.05big
References (63)
References
Anzi (Cavallone), Anna. 1980. Shakespeare nei teatri milanesi del Novecento (1904–1978). Bari: Adriatica.Google Scholar
Anzi, Anna. 2001. Shakespeare nei teatri milanesi del Novecento (1978–2000). Bari: Adriatica.Google Scholar
Aron, Frédéric. 2009. “Richard Factory.” In Richard III. Giorgio Battistelli [programme], 43–46. Strasbourg: Opéra National du Rhin.Google Scholar
Aune, Mark G. 2006. “The Uses of Richard III: from Robert Cecil to Richard Nixon.” Shakespeare Bulletin 24 (3): 23–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Emily C. 1997. “Shakespeare to the People.” Performing Arts Journal 19 (1): 58–60.Google Scholar
Battistelli, Giorgio. 2009. “Assassin malgré lui. Entretien avec Giorgio Battistelli par Franck Mallet.” In Richard III. Giorgio Battistelli [programme], 16–18. Strasbourg: Opéra National du Rhin.Google Scholar
Bene, Carmelo. 2002a. Riccardo III. In Bene and Deleuze 2002, 9–82.Google Scholar
. 2002b. Opere. Con l’Autografia d’un ritratto. Milano: Bompiani.Google Scholar
Bene, Carmelo, and Gilles Deleuze. 2002. Sovrapposizioni. Riccardo III di C.B. Un manifesto di meno di G.D. Macerata: Quodlibet.Google Scholar
Bene, Carmelo, and Giancarlo Dotto. 1998. Vita di Carmelo Bene. Milano: Bompiani.Google Scholar
Billington, Michael. 2011. “Richard III. Review.” The Guardian 29 June. Accessed September 1, 2018. [URL]
Bogue, Ronald. 2003. Deleuze on Literature. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Richard J. B. 2010. Mussolini. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Burton, Ian. 2009. “Après Shakespeare.” In Richard III. Giorgio Battistelli [programme], 24–27. Strasbourg: Opéra National du Rhin.Google Scholar
Cartmell, Deborah. 2010. “Franco Zeffirelli and Shakespeare.” In The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Second edition, edited by Russell Jackson, 216–225. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carsen, Robert. 2009. “Arène sanglante. Entretien avec Robert Carsen par Catherine Jordy.” In Richard III. Giorgio Battistelli [programme], 20–23. Strasbourg: Opéra National du Rhin.Google Scholar
Codebò, Andrea. 1850. Riccardo III. Melodramma in tre atti con prologo. Milano: Tipografia Ripamonti Carpano.Google Scholar
Coduri, Maria. 2013. A Travelling Tale: Shakespeare on the Italian Stage. MPhil diss. University of London. Accessed August 31, 2015. [URL]
Collison-Morley, Lacy. 1916. Shakespeare in Italy. Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press.Google Scholar
Costantini, Emilia. 1995. “Riccardo III? Come Mussolini.” Corriere della Sera 19 October: 51. Accessed January 15, 2019. [URL]
Davie, Anthony. 1996. “The Film Versions of Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare Survey 49: 153–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Felice, Renzo. 1995. Mussolini il fascista. La conquista del potere, 1921–1925. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles. 1993. “What is Desire?” In The Deleuze Reader, edited by Constantin V. Boundas, 136–142. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
. 2002. “Un manifesto di meno.” In Bene and Deleuze 2002, 83–113.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. 1983. The Anti-Oedipus. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
. (1975) 1986. Kafka. Toward a Minor Literature. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
. (1980) 1987. A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles, Félix Guattari, and Robert Brinkley. 1983. “What is a Minor Literature?” Mississippi Review 11 (3): 13–33.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles, and Claire Parnet. 1987. Dialogues II. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Di Giacomo, Antonio. 2003. “Il mio Riccardo tra Mussolini e Berlusconi.” La Repubblica 19 March. Accessed January 15, 2019. [URL]
Donaldson, Peter S. 1990. Shakespeare Films/Shakespearan Directors. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Duranti, Riccardo. 1997. “La doppia mediazione di Carcano.” In Il teatro del personaggio. Shakespeare sulla scena italiana dell’800, edited by Laura Caretti, 81–111. Roma: Bulzoni.Google Scholar
Eco, Umberto. 2013. Inventing the Enemy. London: Vintage.Google Scholar
Elsom, John, ed. 1989. Is Shakespeare Still Our Contemporary? London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fasoli, Doriano. 1978. “Intervista a Carmelo su Riccardo III.” Accessed September 10, 2018. [URL]
Fayard, Nicole. 2003. “Recycling Shakespeare in the 1990s: Contemporary Developments on the French Stage.” French Cultural Studies 14 (1): 23–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fischlin, Daniel, and Mark Fortier, eds. 2000. Adaptations of Shakespeare. A Critical Anthology of Plays from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Florindo [Giovanni Mosca]. 1950. “Riccardo III di Shakespeare.” Candido 2 May. Accessed January 17, 2018. [URL]
Fortier, Mark. 1996. “‘Minor Theater’: Deleuze and Guattari and the Aims of Adaptation.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal 1: 1–18.Google Scholar
Gollancz, Israel, ed. 1916. A Book of Homage. Oxford: Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hoenselaars, Ton, ed. 2004. Shakespeare’s History Plays. Performance, Translation and Adaptation in Britain and Abroad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holland, Peter. 1991. “Shakespeare Performances in England.” Shakespeare Survey 44: 157–190.Google Scholar
Isnenghi, Mario. 2011. Dieci lezioni sull’Italia contemporanea. Roma: Donzelli.Google Scholar
Kowsar, Mohammad. 1986. “Deleuze on Theatre: A Case Study of Carmelo Bene’s Richard III.” Theatre Journal 38 (1): 19–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lane, John Francis. 1979. “Shakespeare in Italy.” Shakespeare Quarterly 30 (2): 306–310. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lehman, Courtney. 2010. Screen Adaptations: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Relationship Between Text and Film. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Levenson, Jill L. 1987. Shakespeare in Performance: Romeo and Juliet. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Loehlin, James N., ed. 2002. Shakespeare in Production: Romeo and Juliet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ludwig, Emil. 1933. Talks with Mussolini. Translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.Google Scholar
McGlynn, Sean. 2015. “Why Are People Venerating Richard III? He Was a Murderous Tyrant.” The Spectator 25 March. Accessed September 15, 2018. [URL]
Quadri, Franco. 1980. La politica del regista. Milano: Il Formichiere.Google Scholar
Rich, Frank. 1992. “Richard III; McKellen’s Richard Is for This Century.” The New York Times 12 June. Accessed January 20, 2019. [URL]
Rokison, Abigal. 2013. “Laurence Olivier.” In Great Shakespearians. Vol. 16: Gielgud, Olivier, Ashcroft, Dench, edited by Russell Jackson, 61–109. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Ross, Alison. 2010. “Desire.” In The Deleuze Dictionary. Revised edition, edited by Adrian Parr, 65–67. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Sandhu, Serina. 2015. “How Richard III Became the Blueprint for Villainous Performances around the World.” The Independent 22 March. Accessed January 20, 2019. [URL]
Scott, Lindsey. 2008. “‘Closed in a Dead Man’s Tomb’: Juliet, Space, and the Body in Franco Zeffirelli’s and Baz Luhrmann’s Films of Romeo and Juliet.” Literature Film Quarterly 36 (2): 137–146.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. 2014. King Richard III (The Arden Shakespeare). Edited by James R. Siemon. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Shurbanov, Alexander, and Boika Sokolova. 2004. “Shakespeare’s History Plays in Bulgaria.” In Hoenselaars 2004, 169–186.Google Scholar
Strehler, Giorgio. 1979. “Inscenare Shakespeare.” In Shakespeare e Jonson. Il teatro elisabettiano oggi, edited by Agostino Lombardo, 280–303. Roma: Officina.Google Scholar
Su, Peirui. 2004. “Method Acting and Pacino’s Looking for Richard.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6 (1), article 9. Accessed January 15, 2019. [URL]. DOI logo
Tempera, Mariangela. 2004. “Rent-a-past: Italian Responses to Shakespeare’s Histories (1800- 1950).” In Hoenselaars 2004, 115–132.Google Scholar
Terris, Olwen. 2011. “An International Database of Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio.” Shakespeare Survey 64: 52–58.Google Scholar
Totaro, Paola. 2013. “Richard III, a First for Online Film.” The Guardian 28 August. Accessed January 15, 2019. [URL]