ORIGINALLY RECORDED: SEPTEMBER 7, 2018
ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
Should we still read Shakespeare? This is a harder question than one might think. As universities focus on diversity, marginalized writers, and widening literary traditions, the so-called “dead-white man” becomes the symbol of everything unjust. No one has been caught in this debate more than The Bard. Is this fair? In this episode we look at his canonical texts and ask, not only whether they should be taught, but whether they are deserving of universal praise. Is Shakespeare really the highest form of English language? Is Romeo and Juliet really a great romance? Is his work objectively good in the first place? Find out the answers to these questions and more.
Adam Kitzes is a Professor of English at the University of North Dakota. He is the author of The Politics of Melancholy from Spenser to Milton, and has written numerous articles about Shakespeare and teaching literature.
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Here’s the thing: so much of modern literature, theatre. criticism, and thought has developed in response and reference to Shakespeare that anyone interested in the humanities will be severely handicapped in their studies if they are not acquainted with his works. This is not only true for people studying Western culture, since artists around the world have been influenced by him and have responded to him (guilt feelings regarding “cultural appropriation” seems to be a very recent and very Western phenomenon). With all due respect to contemporary writers of whatever ethnicity. none of them are as essential as Shakespeare for understanding texts in the major humanistic disciplines,