ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Bottom Translation represents the first critical attempt at applying the ideas and methods of the great Russian critic, Mikhail Bakhtin, to the works of Shakespeare and other Elizabethans. Professor Kott uncovers the cultural and mythopoetic traditions underlying A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Dr. Faustus, and other plays. His method draws him to interpret these works in the light of the carnival and popular tradition as it was set forth by Bakhtin. The Bottom Translation breaks new ground in critical thinking and theatrical vision and is an invaluable source of new ideas and perspectives. Included in this volume is also an extraordinary essay on Kurosawa's "Ran" in which the Japanese filmmaker recreates King Lear.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

JAN KOTT, formerly professor of literature at the University of Warsaw, left Poland for the United States in 1966. He has taught at Yale, the University of California at Berkeley, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, as well as overseas in Japan, at the Catholic University at Louvain in Belgium, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1964 he received the Herder Award in Vienna, and in 1984 the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. His other books include The Theater of Essence, The Bottom Translation, The Eating of the Gods, and Four Decades of Polish Essays (editor), all published by Northwestern University Press.

REVIEWS

"Jan Kott never ceases to amaze me. His imaginative mind moves in on a play from the most unexpected angles, but he always hits dead center. The essay on Faustus is particularly brilliant. The Bottom Translation is an important addition to this major critic's invaluable work." —Robert W. Corrigan

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"Jan Kott is not just another theater critic or historian: he is, in the fullest sense of the term, a man of the theater. His work as a scholar has always been enriched by his experience as a director. His gift has always been to see history in plays, as well as plays in history. His own experience in Eastern Europe gives Kott's readings of Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Webster a rare urgency and originality. This new book throws light not only on Renaissance drama, but on Kott himself; Kott is not only a strong reader, but a powerful writer." —Michael Holquist

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"[O]riginal and exciting. [Kott's] use of Bakhtin as a mirror for the Renaissance stage results in reading that are both elegant and startling. Most welcome of all is Kott's sense of the living theater amidst the neoplatonism and allusion." —Stephen Orgel

— -

"Jan Kott is not just another theater critic or historian: he is, in the fullest sense of the term, a man of the theater. His work as a scholar has always been enriched by his experience as a director. His gift has always been to see history in plays, as well as plays in history. His own experience in Eastern Europe gives Kott's readings of Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Webster a rare urgency and originality. This new book throws light not only on Renaissance drama, but on Kott himself; Kott is not only a strong reader, but a powerful writer." —Michael Holquist

— -

"[O]riginal and exciting. [Kott's] use of Bakhtin as a mirror for the Renaissance stage results in reading that are both elegant and startling. Most welcome of all is Kott's sense of the living theater amidst the neoplatonism and allusion." —Stephen Orgel

— -

"Jan Kott never ceases to amaze me. His imaginative mind moves in on a play from the most unexpected angles, but he always hits dead center. The essay on Faustus is particularly brilliant. The Bottom Translation is an important addition to this major critic's invaluable work." —Robert W. Corrigan

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
The Two Hells of Doctor Faustus: A Polytheatrical Vision
The Bottom Translation
The Tempest, or Repetition
I. Plantation on a Mythical Island
II. The Three Hours, or Purgatory
The Aeneid and The Tempest
Appendix
Prospero, or the Director
Ran, or the End of the World
The Cruel Webster
Index

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