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.
Tag Archives: Twelfth Night
Shakespeare Understood Trumpism
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Adam Gopnik, As You Like It, Donald Trump, Hamlet, Henry V, Hillary Clinton, King Lear, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, William Shakespeare Comments closed
In Defense of The Merchant of Venice
Percy Shelley believes that great art transcends the prejudices of its time, even when it is cloaked in them. If he is right, then “Merchant of Venice” is less of a problem play than many people consider it.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged anti-Semitism, Defence of Poetry, Merchant of Venice, Othello, Percy Shelley, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Shakespeare Was Malvolio
Recent research shows how much of a social climber Shakespeare was. The knowledge gives us new insight into characters like Malvolio and Othello.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christopher Marlowe, Comedy, Doctor Faustus, Jane Austen, social climbing, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Defending the Canon vs. New Attacks
Yale English majors have been complaining about requiring them to study canonical writers. Here’s is why they are wrong.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged canon, canonical works, Herbert Marcuse, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Christie as Prufrock & Other Lit Allusions
Political pundits have been turning to literature to talk about the GOP primaries. This past week saw citations of Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, and Richard Adams (“Watership Down”).
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alice through the Lookinglass, Donald Trump, GOP primaries, Lewis Carroll, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Macbeth, Marco Rubio, politics, Presidential politics, Richard Adams, T. S. Eliot, Ted Cruz, Watership Down Comments closed
A Cosmic Theory of Literature
My attempt at an overarching theory of literature and its place in human history and human progress.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Sir Philip Sidney, Terence, Wayne Booth, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Can Lit Also Be a Force for Evil? A Debate
The classics are capable to doing great good but can they also do harm? Even as they powerfully open up the mind to new possibilities, can they also close it down? A debate.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Anabelle Lee", Aristotle, Bridge to Terabithia, Charles Dickens, Earth Sea Trilogy, Edgar Allan Poe, George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jane Austen, Katherine Paterson, Middlemarch, Old Curiosity Shop, Percy Shelley, Plato, Pride and Prejudice, Sir Philip Sidney, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ursula Leguin, William Shakespeare Comments closed
