Tag Archives: William Shakespeare

Shakespeare in a Divided America

By Robin Bates | Published: January 16, 2025

Shapiro’s “Shakespeare in a Divided America” shows that the Bard has made an appearance in most of American history’s key moments.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged censorship, Hamlet, James Shapiro, Julius Caesar, MAGA, Merchant of Venice, Othello, Romeo and Juiet, Shakespeare in a Divided America | Leave a comment

Lit Packs a Powerful Punch

By Robin Bates | Published: January 3, 2025

My book “Better Living through Lit” this past year was only one of several making the case that literature can be social dynamite.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Beloved, Ben Jonson, Better Living through Literature, book bans, Christopher Marlowe, Dangerous Fictions, Harold Bloom, Hesiod, Homer, Iliad, Lyta Gold, Odyssey, Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray, Plato, Toni Morrison | Comments closed

Atkinson Uses Lit to Explore Dying

By Robin Bates | Published: December 23, 2024

Atkinson, in “A God in Ruins,” uses literary fragments to explore the process of dying. She includes excerpts from Shakespeare, Blake, Hopkins, Wordsworth and others.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Adlestrop", "God's Grandeur", "Holly and the Ivy", "Lamb", "Ministry of Angels", "On First Reading Chapman's Homer", death and dying, Edmund Spenser, Edmund Thomas, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Keats, Kate Atkinson, Love in Ruins, Midsummer Night's Dream, Spring and Fall, Tempest, William Blake | Comments closed

Stop the Clocks: This Is the Hour of Lead

By Robin Bates | Published: November 7, 2024

Auden’s mourning poem “Stop All the Clocks” captures the mood of those who saw a fascist triumph in the American presidential election.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "After great pain a formal feeling comes", "Stop All the Clocks", Donald Trump, Election 2024, Emily Dickinson, Kamala Harris, King Lear, W. H. Auden | Comments closed

America: Indivisible Despite the Divides

By Robin Bates | Published: November 4, 2024

As the American election hangs in the balance, Alicia Ostriker holds two contradictory visions of America in balance.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "I Too Sing America", "Ghazal America the Beautiful, Alicia Ostriker, America the Beautiful, American Dream, Langston Hughes, Midsummer Night's Dream, Patriotism, Star Spangled Banner | Comments closed

Kamala Harris as Shakespeare’s Henry V

By Robin Bates | Published: November 4, 2024

Kamala Harris resembles Shakespeare’s Henry V in some important ways.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Election 2024, Henry V, Kamala Harris | Comments closed

Our Lear Is Running to Be King Again

By Robin Bates | Published: October 29, 2024

In an essay reposted from 2017 that is still relevant, I compare Trump’s narcissism with King Lear’s.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, King Lear, narcissism | Comments closed

Richard II and Our Own Succession Issues

By Robin Bates | Published: October 21, 2024

Shakespeare’s “Richard II” maybe be about an absolute monarch but what it says about succession issues are relevant today.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, Peaceful transfer of power, Richard II | Comments closed

Disruptive Desire in Shakespeare

By Robin Bates | Published: October 19, 2024

In which I examine disruptive desire in 12th Night, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Comedy, gender bending, Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, sexuality, tragedy | Comments closed