ABSTRACT
This chapter approaches the Mas as a "counter discourse" belonging to a complex political dynamic that seeks to deconstruct significations of authority. The Mas is a telling illustration of a postcolonial culture reading us in an inversion of Emerson's famous dictum. The chapter explores the commonplace practice as a middlebrow literacy in "The Shatnerfication of Shakespeare" and point to the larger industry of quotation manuals that still fuels a significant part of the popular print culture surrounding Shakespeare. As a unique form of "mimicry", the Mas demonstrate Shakespeare's importance to the colonial project and the contradictory ways his writing is used to construct identities. The Shakespeare Mas belongs to a tradition of comic carnival rituals that dramatize scenes of colonial contest and resistance in which there are strong parallels to English medieval guild shows. While the movie positions to accept Forrester's genuine approach to self-development, it nonetheless positions the audience to thrill in the status game that is commonplace literacy.
