Quite possibly, if the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust itself can now decide that the old Bard’s plays are ‘problematic’ specifically because they are ‘racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic’ and contain a novel notion, ‘misogynoir’ – hatred of black women.
Quite bad enough that the man’s success feeds the idea of white European supremacy, but even the most commonplace writers’ images are a subject of these decolonisers’ alarms over unsafe language.
The favoured literary trope of night cloaking evil deeds, the truth of which daylight reveals is a current ‘problem’ because to characterise darkness and light in this way is, according to the plays’ critics, racist. The narratives, it is claimed, equate beauty with whiteness.
The opening lines of A midsummer night’s dream are quoted as clear evidence of this.
‘Now, fair, Hippolyta, our nuptial hour draws on apace.’
Call me picky, but I think staff at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust ought to have a better grasp of Elizabethan vocabulary than this. ‘Fair’ in that era’s context means, ‘beautiful,’ or ‘attractive.’ The lines from the first act of Macbeth illustrate this.
‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair,’
as the three witches predict with these words the overturning of the natural order, not the slighting of pale-skinned people.
The press releases from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust attempt to rewind previous claims of Shakespeare’s ‘greatness’ and prefer now to describe him as part of a community of ‘equal but different’ world writers.
To better make the point, among its recent events has been a Bollywood dance workshop inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
So it will come as no shock to know that the Trust has received funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation which supports enterprises that emphasise diversity and inclusion.
Naturally the joke whereby Oberon gives Titania a love potion, so she fancies Bottom-of-the-ass-head, is now making the Trust nervous as academics howl about lack of consent.
William Shakespeare wrote 38 or 39 plays depending on who you believe, a cannon of work rich in opportunities for employees of the Trust to eventually dismantle the purpose of their jobs.
At this point it would be no surprise if Shakespeare himself wanted to distance himself from the Birthplace Trust and its unwillingness to accept the idea of historical context. The elegant insult from As you like it, should send the message adequately: ‘I do desire we may be better strangers.’
Penn Raine is an educator and writer who lives in NZ and France.
8 comments:
Remember that most academics and most so-called intellectuals are lightweight thinkers, lacking original ideas and creativity. Bitterness and envy runs deep in these people. Don't ask a university professor to name their original ideas!
Excellent article. But whom, 20 years ago, would have
believed the necessity for its writing?
Well said, Penn. Of course, many cultures have produced very fine authors, writers, playwrights and poets, and ranking them is a fools errand. But Shakespeare's works are undeniably wonderful - full of life, full of beauty and full of insight into the human condition. In addition, he seems to have been a great humanitarian but who should be judged according to the standards of his time.
Everyone should know this piece from the Merchant of Venice (Act IV, Scene I) because it gives a guide as to how we should live our lives and how we should treat others:
The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.
David Lillis
They must go into an apoplexy when they come across "Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. Take it in what sense thou wilt. Cut off their heads, take their maidenheads—whatever."
But then a lot of today's 'expert' commentators probably wouldn't know what a 'maidenhead' is.........
Better cleanse the English language of all Shakespeare derived words. And banish silly old Chaucer - so yesterday. And what about the ridiculous Bronte sisters or pompous Byron or the bible and its heroes smiting Samaritans not to mention a bit of infanticide or fratricide ... how embarrassing.
I much prefer the solemnity and sincerity and inclusiveness of a taniwha or a sky god or a rainbow.
PS will some one remind the Icelanders to stop carrying on about their deeply monoculture Sagas and instead to get a life all these years later?
B.V - I can see a ' certain section of the current population ' using their mobile phone/ cell phone / tablet - or a devise - to seek knowledge on the " word " you have placed in front of us.
Me thinks, that by 0800 hundred hours Monday 24 March - it will have become " a non word " and all efforts will be made by those misguided patriots to have it removed from any and all Dictionaries.
The above fall into a category of Humanity, that you have commented on, under another post on this website -I am sure you will know the response I refer to.
Thankfully we still have Shakespeare.
But sadly we are seeing a demise of a Country, at the hands of the mis-guided.
Alas poor Shakespeare (Yorick), I knew him Horatio.......
If there's any good news to be had from these woke, revisionist imbeciles at the Birthplace Trust, we are fortunate that the internet will record for posterity who they are and were. So rather than be "strangers", perhaps it might be better that they (and their warped beliefs) should be become well-known, in order their ideologies be best avoided. But nothing now surprises in this crazy bizarre world when here, in NZ, the public funds and bestows accolades on the likes of Tusiata Avia for her truly vile, hate-filled poem regarding Capt. James Cook. Therefore, it's not wholly surprising, Shakespeare should now have lost favour.
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