ShakespeareinaDividedAmerica

In this timely exploration, leading scholar James Shapiro examines what Shakespeare’s plays reveal about America’s divided past and present. Shakespeare’s plays have been read by almost every student and staged in theaters across the country, making them a rare common ground. Conservatives and liberals alike have long appreciated Shakespeare’s works for their insights into America’s political fault lines, including race, gender, immigration, manifest destiny, and free speech.

Shapiro takes readers on a journey across the centuries, tracing the unparalleled role of Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies in helping Americans make sense of many of these issues. He reflects on how Shakespeare has been invoked throughout pivotal moments in American history, from President John Quincy Adams’s disgust with Desdemona’s interracial marriage to Othello, to Abraham Lincoln’s and John Wilkes Booth’s competing obsessions with the plays.

Throughout his narrative, Shapiro highlights how Shakespeare has been both celebrated and weaponized. The controversial adaptations Kiss Me Kate and Shakespeare in Love are also explored, as well as the 2017 controversy over the staging of Julius Caesar in Central Park.

Shakespeare in a Divided America is an extraordinary work of research, demonstrating the writer’s unparalleled ability to shed light on America’s hot-button issues. Shapiro argues that a better understanding of Shakespeare’s role in American life could help to begin mending our bitterly divided land.

作者简介

JamesShapiroiscurrentlytheLarryMillerProfessorofEnglishandComparativeLiteratureatColumbiaUniversity,wherehehastaughtsince1985.In2011,hewasinductedintotheAmericanAcademyofArtsandSciences.Hehaswrittenseveralaward-winningbooksonShakespeare,andhismostrecentbook,TheYearofLear:Shakespearein1606,wasawardedtheJamesTaitBlackPr...