“It’s a funny thing,” admits Elizabeth Winkler. “I don’t really like controversy. I don’t seek it out. There are some people that thrive on it and I don’t.”Who's she? Apparently, a 33-year-old American journalist and book critic, who holds English literature degrees from Princeton and Stanford universities, writes for the Wall Street Journal newspaper and the New Yorker magazine. And she's got a book out!
What's it about? Glad you asked, Reader...
The subject in question is perhaps the final blasphemy of British culture: the theory that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon might not have written Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and other plays and poems that bear his name.And it's titled 'Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies'...
Her book makes three compelling arguments: tying the authorship question to the rise and fall of imperial Britain and its need for national mythmaking; exploring how Shakespeare was turned into a secular god, with theatre filling the vacuum left by the decline of the church; and challenging the basic human need to cling to belief when doubt might be the proper response.
None of that shocking at all, when one considers the source...
8 comments:
Shakespeare's plays were actually written by a black woman. It's only a matter of time before this indisputable truth becomes widely known. Remember, you read it here first.
Funny that doubt isn't the proper response when seeing a hairy bloke in a frock.
I thought that it had long been common knowledge that the authorship of Shakespeare's output couldn't be proven. Elizabeth Winkler should just go and exit persued by a bear.
Guardian, font of all truth.
Frank,
Not only was the author of the plays and sonnets, a black woman, but she was also a lesbian, who escaped from slavery and made her work an allegory of the abuse she suffered by wypo.
Either that, or they were written by The Great Macgonagle.
Next week we discuss who Michaelangelo really was (Michelle Angelo?).
Penseivat
Shows how little she knows about Britain when she suggests that 'Shakespeare has become our secular god' - that position is fully occupied by the sainted NHS, the average Brits never get out on their doorsteps once a week to clap Will of Stratford.
Bill Bryson's book on Shakespeare is a very good read. It goes over all the evidence that we have, which isn't a lot. For example we know that his Dad was a leading citizen in Stratford, and all children of this class got entry to Strafford grammar. At that time this grammar school paid it's staff more than Eton did, and was one of top grammars in the country. Yet we have no school roll showing Bill was there. It also mentions that in the royal records, when Shakespeare was part of the Kings company, when plays were performed for the King it recorded the playwright, one William Shakespeare. So there is some real evidence, more than you might expect for some one of this class.
"Remember, you read it here first."
😂
"Funny that doubt isn't the proper response when seeing a hairy bloke in a frock."
Indeed!
"Elizabeth Winkler should just go and exit persued by a bear."
'Winter's Tale'! I didn't need to Google that, I had to do it for A level...
"Guardian, font of all truth."
In their dreams!
"Next week we discuss who Michaelangelo really was (Michelle Angelo?)."
🤣
"Shows how little she knows about Britain when she suggests that 'Shakespeare has become our secular god' - that position is fully occupied by the sainted NHS..."
Good point!
"Bill Bryson's book on Shakespeare is a very good read."
That's one for the TBR list then.
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