At 10:14 AM -0800 1/20/03, Jon Corelis wrote:
>Alison Croggon points out that some people argue for Shakespeare as a
>political subversive. No doubt they do, but surely the plays all overtly
>support the status quo -- if they hadn't he would have ended up in the
>Tower.
This is an interesting point, Jon. There's no doubt that Shakespeare
was politically canny, and knew how to write in a state that was
about as repressive as states could get in those times without being
imprisoned by the authorities. On the other hand, if that is all
there is to Shakespeare's texts, why was he so important in Communist
Poland as an expression of dissent? I think his plays do something
much more interesting than "support the status quo" (and I also don't
think art is there to preach or draw neat conclusions about anything;
as somebody said, it's about getting the questions right); he had an
almost Machiavellian view of power which at its bleakest is utterly
contemporary.
Best
A
--
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
Masthead Online
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
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