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Description
This is the final programme in the series. The programme revisits some of the key critical approaches to understanding Shakespeare - especially new historicism and cultural materialism. It includes
... interview material collected at the World Congress on Shakespeare in Los Angeles in 1996.
| 1 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:04,000 | Ania Loomba: I think for a feminist it is important to see how Shakespeare's play... |
| 1 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:04,000 | (Stephen Regan) We've heard a lot in recent years about two versions of… |
| 1 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:05,000 | Stephen Greenblatt: - but I think that Shakespeare in lots of different ways, |
| 1 | 00:00:02,000 | 00:00:04,000 | (Stephen Greenblatt) One of the things that I think is quite characteristic, |
| 1 | 00:00:03,000 | 00:00:06,000 | Stephen Regan: One of the things I wanted to ask you Jerry, |
| 2 | 00:00:04,000 | 00:00:06,000 | (Stephen Greenblatt) almost a thumbprint of Shakespeare… |
| 2 | 00:00:04,000 | 00:00:08,000 | Stephen Regan: historicist criticism, and new historicism which tends to be the term used… |
| 2 | 00:00:05,000 | 00:00:10,000 | ..allows us to look at gender relations in the 16th century and to look at… |
| 2 | 00:00:06,000 | 00:00:10,000 | the difference between criticism and theory, is it a useful distinction to make? |
| 3 | 00:00:06,000 | 00:00:12,000 | ..is that he simultaneously does use the lower class characters as comic relief as foils, |
| 2 | 00:00:06,000 | 00:00:12,000 | was anticipating precisely the use of his texts for all kinds of purposes other than… |
| 3 | 00:00:08,000 | 00:00:11,000 | in the United sich seems to be the term… |
| 3 | 00:00:10,000 | 00:00:16,000 | ..gender relations in our own time , and it allows us to be feminist in a very, very… |
| 3 | 00:00:11,000 | 00:00:14,000 | Jerry Brotton: I think in many ways it is. I think it's important though to bear in mind… |
| 4 | 00:00:12,000 | 00:00:17,000 | ..favoured in Britain. The way I understand is that new historicism, if we take a play… |
| 4 | 00:00:13,000 | 00:00:18,000 | as characters to be laughed at, and at the same time he almost always catches one up short, |
| 3 | 00:00:13,000 | 00:00:16,000 | ..the one strictly speaking for which the texts were originally written. |
| 4 | 00:00:14,000 | 00:00:19,000 | Jerry Brotton: ..the way in which theory does something very distinct from criticism. |
| 4 | 00:00:16,000 | 00:00:21,000 | ..I think productive way. It's a play that allows us to critique what relationships… |
| 4 | 00:00:16,000 | 00:00:20,000 | That's why an older historicism that simply tries to track down the relation of the text… |
| 5 | 00:00:17,000 | 00:00:22,000 | ..like Macbeth, would look at the extent to which the play is in dialogue with other texts, |
| 5 | 00:00:19,000 | 00:00:23,000 | Jerry Brotton: I think that the important distinguishing characteristic of theory is that… |
| 5 | 00:00:19,000 | 00:00:25,000 | and surprises one by the way in which those characters have their own weird dignity. |
| 5 | 00:00:20,000 | 00:00:25,000 | ..to its immediate historical setting, doesn't get what the texts actually are, even in… |
| 5 | 00:00:21,000 | 00:00:24,000 | ..between men and women are like or should be like. |
| 6 | 00:00:23,000 | 00:00:28,000 | so of significance to a new historicist criticism would be things like proceedings of… |
| 6 | 00:00:24,000 | 00:00:28,000 | Jerry Brotton: ..theory is something that you put to work around literature, so I mean… |
| 6 | 00:00:25,000 | 00:00:31,000 | Take the rude mechanicals in A Midsummer Night's Dream. They're treated with… |
| 6 | 00:00:25,000 | 00:00:29,000 | ..their own historical relation which is much more open, much more vital and… |
| 6 | 00:00:26,000 | 00:00:30,000 | John Drakakis: A traditional view of Cleopatra is that she is a femme fatale. |
| 7 | 00:00:28,000 | 00:00:34,000 | ..witchcraft trials, King James' writings on kingship for instance. |
| 7 | 00:00:29,000 | 00:00:33,000 | Jerry Brotton: ..we can think for instance of the notion of arguments around feminism, |
| 7 | 00:00:29,000 | 00:00:31,000 | ..much more disturbing than they might at first seem. |
| 7 | 00:00:31,000 | 00:00:37,000 | ..hilarious unabashed contempt for their absurdity, for their grossness, |
| 7 | 00:00:31,000 | 00:00:36,000 | Every middle aged male academic's dream of what a woman should be. |
| 8 | 00:00:33,000 | 00:00:36,000 | Kiernan Ryan: For William Morris, the purpose of art was to educate our desire, |
| 8 | 00:00:34,000 | 00:00:38,000 | Jerry Brotton: being quite abstract theoretical issues, but now what's started to happen… |
| 8 | 00:00:34,000 | 00:00:40,000 | Cultural materialism is also interested in that kind of relationship between the play and… |
| 8 | 00:00:36,000 | 00:00:40,000 | You know, age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety. |
| 8 | 00:00:37,000 | 00:00:42,000 | for their failure to understand what a play is, for their hopelessness, and yet… |
| 9 | 00:00:37,000 | 00:00:41,000 | to teach us to want more, to want better, to want different… |
| 9 | 00:00:38,000 | 00:00:41,000 | Jerry Brotton: ..over the last couple of decades, is the way in which issues… |
| 9 | 00:00:40,000 | 00:00:44,000 | ..other texts and between the play and social history, but seems… |
| 10 | 00:00:41,000 | 00:00:44,000 | Jerry Brotton: ..say around feminism can then be put to work. A theoretical issue… |
| 9 | 00:00:41,000 | 00:00:47,000 | Now if we think of that particular play in terms of the opposition between Rome and Egypt, |
| 10 | 00:00:41,000 | 00:00:44,000 | ..than the world currently affords us, and Shakespeare can do that… |
| 9 | 00:00:42,000 | 00:00:46,000 | ..they are in a way the great characters from that wonderful play, |
| 11 | 00:00:44,000 | 00:00:47,000 | Jerry Brotton: ..can be put to work in relation to the play. |
| 10 | 00:00:44,000 | 00:00:48,000 | ..to give more emphasis to the political significance of the play now. |
| 11 | 00:00:45,000 | 00:00:47,000 | ..better than any other writer who's ever lived. |
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