The Politics of Contemporary Approaches to Shakespeare Essay

Abstract Postmodern performance of Shakespeare, particularity in film, is characterized by a subjective experience within the play not an objective experience from the play. Under postmodernism, Shakespeare undergoes theorizing, deconstruction, displacement or death of the author, textual criticism, and cultural and political relativism but fails to produce solid answers. Postmodern Shakepseare does not offer new meanings but new and more possibilities for contemplating meaning. This fails both the traditionalist who relishes in reviving universal meaning, and the progressive who relishes propagating their political diatribe. Traditionalists can give a sigh of relief that Shakespeare thrives in the postmodern age by way of a growing†¦show more content†¦The controversy of his termination spread beyond the department and up to the university presidents office. Several university law professors questioned constitutional violations against Sakren. The story ran in papers across the stat e, and the populous at large revisited the topic of the widespread rejection of Western literature and thought by secular academia in favor of feminism and multiculturalism. The incident highlights the explosive politics of contemporary approaches to literature. Even a simple examination of two student-written articles on the Sakren case illustrates the deep divide between academically minded people. While a University of Arizona undergraduate described Sakren as determined to fight back against this current of political correctness trend of stamping out timeless classical literature because it is authored by dead, white, European males (Alexander) a University of Southern California undergraduate describes Sakren as one with narrow visions†¦[who] fails to acknowledge and teach†¦differences in experience and voices (Gualvez). The one side fears the loss of Western literature along with all its merits. 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