Specters of Shakespeare in Ron Rash’s Serena

Ron Rash’s fourth novel, Serena, released in October of 2008, retells Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the context of 1920s Appalachian lumber industry. It follows George and Serena Pemberton’s rise – not to a literal throne but rather to a figurative one as heads of a timber empire which stands opposed to the creation of a national park and a burgeoning environmental movement. Rash’s treatment of Shakespeare play is engaging on a variety of levels, the least of which is a title which signals a shift in emphasis from the “Macbeth” figure to his wife. However, rather than only trace Rash’s engagement with the material of Shakespeare’s play – particularly his construction of Serena, this paper will examine how Shakespeare himself functions conceptually in the creation, publication, and critical reception of Rash’s novel. I am interested not only in how Rash, himself, views Shakespeare, tragedy, and various elements of Macbeth, but also how his publisher, Ecco Books, utilizes this connection to Shakespeare in the physical construction of the book and its marketing, and finally how reviewers choose to engage or not engage this novel’s indebtedness to Shakespeare.