Friday When assuring my English majors that they will find jobs in the world beyond college, I sometimes point out that they are experts in narrative. Increasingly we are learning how much we process reality through stories, and political operatives talk ceaselessly about “controlling the narrative.” How you organize facts (or for that matter, lies) […]
Tag Archives: Macbeth
Are We Watching Shakespeare or Beckett?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Arthur Conan Doyle, Donald Trump, Endgame, Hamlet, King Lear, Mueller investigation, narrative, Richard III, Samuel Beckett, Unnamable, Waiting for Godot, Westword Ho!, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Which Shakespeare Character Is Trump?
Wednesday It’s satisfying to see national pundits take a page out of Better Living through Beowulf and turn to the classics to understand Donald Trump. Okay, so NeverTrumper conservative Bret Stephens has probably never read this blog, but we both recognize how literature deepens our understanding of the world, including American politics. I particularly appreciate […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristophanes, Donald Trump, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Lysistrata, Nikolai Gogol, Othello, Richard III, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Blackburn Unsexes Herself over Guns
Tennessee Senator-elect Marsha Blackburn’s insensitivity towards gun victims invites comparisons with Lady Macbeth.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged gun control, Marsha Blackburn, NRA, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Trump, Like Macbeth, Does Murder Sleep
“Macbeth,” a psychological study of a tyrant, also illumines aspects of Donald Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged authoritarians, Donald Trump, Richard III, tyrants, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Trump & GOP as Shakespearean Drama
To see the decline of the GOP as a Shakespeare drama, one must draw on “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,,” “Henry IV,” and “King Lear.” And throw in Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dpnald Trump, GOP, Hamlet, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, King Lear, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Lincoln Transformed Depression thru Lit
Melancholy threatened to paralyze Abraham Lincoln in his early years. Literature helped him give voice to his depression and taught him how to turn it into an asset.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Dream", "Raven", Abraham Lincoln, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, First Inaugural Address, Manfred, unipolar disease, William Shakespeare Comments closed
WaPo’s Petri Plays Shakespearean Fool
Washington Post humorist Alexandra Petri has been having a lot of fun with Trump supporters’ attack on “Julius Caesar.” Here are some of her funniest barbs.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aleandra Petri, Crucible, Hamlet, Humor, Ice Man Cometh, Julius Caesar, Long Day's Journey into Night, Master Builder, Newt Gingrich, Raisin in the Sun, Rent, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Shakespeare Understood Trumpism
According to Adam Gopnik, Shakespeare would have understood the rise of Donald Trump better than we do today. Whereas we see him as a historical oddity, Shakespeare would have seen him as the kind of evil that has always resided within humankind.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Adam Gopnik, As You Like It, Donald Trump, Hamlet, Henry V, Hillary Clinton, King Lear, Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Trump, Macduff, and “Untimely Ripped”
Donald Trump’s characterization of late-term abortions as “ripping” harken back to a verb used in “Macbeth.” Most people, however, would argue that both Trump and Macduff are describing caesarians.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged abortion debate, Donald Trump, William Shakespeare Comments closed
