Book excerpt: This book, with a foreword by Arthur F. Kinney, covers the majorissues of the stage history and translation in the negotiation betweenRomanian culture and Shakespeare, raising questions about what aShakespeare play becomes when incorporated in a different andallegedly liminal culture. The study reflects the growingcross-fertilization of approaching Shakespeare in Romaniantranslations, productions, literary adaptations, and criticism, looking atthe way in which Romania's collective cultural memory is constructed, re-examined, and embedded in the adoption of Shakespeare in certainperiods. While it posits the problematics in the historical developmentof Shakespeare's presence in Romanian culture, the study gives adetailed history of the translations and productions of the plays, focusing on the most significant aspects of their literary, social, andpolitical appropriation over the past two centurie