“Taming of the Shrew” may have set the stage for the far more egalitarian “Much Ado about Nothing,” which launched the feuding couples comedy.
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Tag Archives: William Shakespeare
Feuding Beats Shrew-Taming
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aphra Behn, feuding couples comedy, John Fletcher, Much Ado about Nothing, Rover, Tamer Tamed, Taming of the Shrew Comments closed
Feuding Couples Comedy
I have just begun teaching a “Feuding Couples Comedy” course. “Much Ado about Nothing” remains the quintessential example of the genre.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged couples comedy, feuding couples comedy, Much Ado about Nothing, Romantic Comedy, Taming of the Shrew Comments closed
“Et Tu, Brute!”–Betraying the Kurds
Which Shakespeare play best captures Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds? Julius Caesar, perhaps, for pathos, Othello for the cold-blooded way it was done.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Julius Caesar, Kurds, Macbeth, Othello, Syria, Turkey Comments closed
Which Literary Conman Is Trump?
To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beggar's Opera, Confidence Man, conmen, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn, John Gay, John Milton, Mark Twain, Othello, Paradise Lost Comments closed
Couples Fighting: It Must Be Love
Tuesday I read plays all day yesterday with an eye toward an upcoming class on “Battling Couples in Theatre and Film (the Comic Version).” The September course is part of Sewanee’s “Lifelong Learning” series. As the course runs for four weeks, I will teach four plays and four movies, pairing a play with a film […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aphra Behn, couples comedy, Edward Albee, George Bernard Shaw, His Girl Friday, It Happened One Night, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Much Ado about Nothing, Pillow Talk, Pygmalion, Romantic Comedy, Rover, screwball comedy, Taming of the Shrew Comments closed
Old Friends Recall the Midnight Chimes
Monday When Julia and I reunited with my senior Carleton roommates recently, I found myself thinking of the reunion that concludes Henry IV, Part II. To be sure, our memories didn’t involve loose women we had encountered in our youth. Nevertheless, there was an elegiac feel to our gathering as there is in the play. […]
Cataract Surgery: See Better, Lear
Thursday I am undergoing a second cataract surgery today and so am reposting the essay I wrote following my first (successful) surgery. I don’t expect to re-experience the same mixed feelings that I described two years ago, but dramas that feature sharp objects poked into people’s eyes still seem relevant. This essay is not for […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Black Leopard Red Wolf, cataract surgery, King Lear, Marlon James, Oedipus, Sophocles Comments closed
Same-Sex Desire in the Sonnets
Wednesday If you want a one-stop article about the same-sex desire expressed in Shakespeare’s first 126 sonnets, Sandra Newman’s recent Aeon article is the place to go. Newman neatly summarizes the historical debates over the sonnets and pretty much puts the matter to rest: they really are expressions of homosexual love from Shakespeare to a […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Sonnet 20", As You Like It, LBGTQ community, Same-Sex Intimacy, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Twelfth Night Comments closed