I deem it a privilege to be with you this morning.
I thank the Director
Dr. Rajendra Naidu for this opportunity. I’m grateful to madam V. Lakshmi for
the invitation. I’m indebted to the head Dr.Kalvikkarasi for thinking about me to
deliver this talk. I thank Professor Premjith for being here this morning. Thank
you Dr. Gomathi for your kind words.
Shakespeare is the only playwright most people can name and been a
major influence on English Language and Literature for 400 years. While most
only know his plays through popular cultural osmosis or English class, the
truths he invented are popularized and are still with us today. Many of his plays
and plots are traceable back to older sources as that he made his own; producing
timeless works with incredible diverse output.
If anniversaries are a good time to take stock ,then this is the perfect time to
celebrate the birth centenary of son of our soil, Dr MG Ramachandran and the
400th death anniversary of the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, both
legendary in their given realms. Our beloved Dr MGR is a cultural icon, actor,
director, producer, and politician and is regarded as one of the greatest and most
influential actors the Tamil film industry ever produced. 400 years ago , the
Bard was just that - poet ,playwright actor and theater owner , one of the
greatest the world has ever seen. I congratulate the department for seeing this
thread in the lives of these two powerful men, and express my heartfelt gratitude
to the department of English for giving me this opportunity to participate in the
seminar on
Critical Perspectives on Shakespeare.
Shakespearean criticism is an effort to force the bard into categories, which
he will not fit. During his life time and till today Shakespeare enjoys fame and
critical appreciation. He is the most studied human being in the history of
mankind,across centuries and has established himself as a brand. There is a
demand for all Shakespearean productsbe it his life, his love, his texts, his
editors, his readers or his consumers. As Falstaff says in the Merry Wives of
Windsor, as luck would have it, Shakespeare as a common, continues to gather
cultural capital because of the his ability to repeat in different contexts, his page
, stage and image in popular and mass forms. There have been a variety of
critical approaches to Shakespeare’s works. He has been admired and
condemned for his writings.Critics of the 17th and 18th century praised him for
his perfect and fecund imagination. Ben Johnson, his contemporary remarked,
he was not of an age but for all times. John Milton in his Sonnet on Shakespeare
said,
What needs my Shakespeare for his honour of Bones,
That kings for such a Tomb would want to die.
The German philosopher Goethe called him a mystical seer.
Shakespeare studies at universities and colleges have undergone a change in the
last three decades of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is no longer adequate to
discuss Shakespeare in terms of characters,themes and plots.The answer lies in
the changes in the philosophical & political viewpoints.
British literary critic Terry Eagleton said that 'it is difficult to read Shakespeare
without feeling that he was almost certainly familiar with the writings of Hegel,
Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein and Derrida'.
The Slovenian psychoanalytic theorist SlavojZizek observed that 'Shakespeare
without doubt had read Lacan'?
Karl Marx was an avid reader of Shakespeare and used Timon of Athens to
illustrate aspects of his economic theory;
psychoanalytic theorists from Sigmund Freud to Jacques Lacan have explained
some of their most axiomatic positions with reference to Hamlet;
Michel Foucault's early theoretical writing on dreams and madness returns
repeatedly to Macbeth;
Jacques Derrida's deconstructive philosophy is articulated in dialogue with
Shakespeare's plays, including Romeo and Juliet;
Helene Cixous's best known French feminist essay is a meditation on Antony
and Cleopatra;
certain strands of queer theory derive their impetus from Eve Kosofsky
Sedgwick's reading of the Sonnets;
Gilles Deleuze alights on Richard III as an exemplary instance of his theory of
the war machine;
And postcolonial theory owes a large debt to AimeCesaire's revision of
The Tempest.
At a time when the prefix ‘post’ has been affixed to almost every concept, state
of being, or theory (for instance, postmodernism, post-feminism, post-
structuralism, post-industrialism), the hazards of using a term with such a prefix
are great. While it risks being relegated to the increasingly less useful and less
meaningful ‘post- box’ of trite expressions, ‘post-colonial’,
Post colonial theory discusses the notion of resistance ,of subversion or
opposition, The concept of resistance brings with itself the concept of
liberity,identity and individuality. Colonialism in Shakespeare works has
become a major interest of literary critics. Shakespeare was writing during the
Renaissance :a period of the rebirth of the ancient or the classical learning.
Some of Shakespeare’s plays have non white&non Christian characters.Aaron
and Othello are North African moors,Cleopatra is an Egyptian,Caliban is savage
from Algiers,Tubal,Aaron's baby,Shylock,Prince of Morocco are all
non Christians.
There are women in his plays like Sycorax, Jessica,Tamora,Othello's mother.
Renaissance was also the age of discovery. Explorers moved westwards to
America. This broadened the known world . They could defeat the American
Indians but not Turks and moors ,constructing the racial other .Although the
Europeans entered in commercial, diplomatic,and social engagements with the
people from the Ottoman Empire, East Mediterranean and North Africa, they
wanted to differentiate their entire their race & religion.
Othello stands as the image of the racial other, the other is the anti thesis of the
western self. He has great military skills and is pragmatic. The European
society will want to adopt him and he too has a desire to assimilate. He does this
by being loyal to the Venetian council and by marrying a native Venetian
woman. . He is a Christian soldier, who defends the Christian state against the
Muslims. As he is needed to fight the Turks effectively, the Senate tolerates his
racial identity and treats him as more „fair‟ than „black‟. Here Shakespeare
shows that both skin colour and religion connote a sense of power. One (like
Othello) who can manipulate the avenues of power ,need not worry about the
inappropriateness of his race or religion. Though Othello‟s Christian identity is
acquired, he is more of a Christian than the nominal Christian Iago. The latter
falls prey to jealousy and greed for power- both non-Christian vices. Yet, Iago
reports to Brabantio that his daughter will soon be „covered with a Barbary
horse‟, and Brabantio, in turn, thinks of Desdemona‟s affair with Othello as an
„accident‟ (Act I, Sci).
Despite his merit, Othello must remain an outsider in Venetian society.Othello
becomes the perfect example to reveal the specific psychology of jealousy
complicated by racial insecurity. Titus Andronicus represents Shakespeare’s
engagement with the issue of race in his early career. The play ostensibly deals
with the life of the Roman hero Titus Andronicus and the rivalry between the
Romans and the Goths surrounding him.
Issues of race are implicit, primarily in the characterization of Aaron and
Tamora.The figure of the racial ,,other'' in this play, Aaron, has little to
command the reader's sympathy on his side.Though we feel that the prejudice
against him, based on the grounds of race per se, is unjustified; we also realize
that he is a hardened criminal and the treatment that he receives is, in some
sense, a just punishment.The queen of the Goths, Tamora, too cannot claim to
be only a victim of racial prejudice.
Shakespeare seems to attest that, blackness is indeed, not merely skin deep but
an essential character trait.With greater exposure to the world around him,
Shakespeare, slowly but surely, discarded this lopsided view of other races. He
realised that differences of other racial groups from white Europeans were
limited to non-essential physical attributes. Aaron, the moor, seems to typify
black barbarism and malignity. Invectives against his skin colour litter the play.
He is seen as a „ravenous tiger‟ who, according to Lucius, is the „chief
instigator‟ of the tragedy (Act V, Scene iii). Interestingly, Aaron does not really
attempt to defend himself against these allegations. In fact, he proudly puts
forward a catalogue of crimes. There has not been a day when he has not
indulged in crime,
“As kill a man, or else device his death;
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;
Accuse some innocent and forswear myself;
Set deadly enmity between two friends...”
The Merchant of Venice, helps us understand Shakespeare’s position on race
better. In the figure of Shylock, the playwright seems to have entirely succeeded
in discarding his earlier prejudiced outlook. While Shylock is a pitiless
businessman with an eye for maximizing profit, we also acknowledge that he is
more sinned against than sinning.
The character of Shylock, was taken to lend credence to anti-Semitic thoughts
of cultural exclusion.
Jessica, in this play represents the possibility of cultural exchange. Her romance
with Lorenzo is hardly seen as a transgression in the context of the play.
Shylock is shown as hard hearted and unsympathetic, because he opposes the
match. By the end of the play, the dichotomy of merciful Christian and heartless
Jew collapses entirely. In the famous Trial Scene, the playwright exposes the
hypocrisy of the Christian lot, who are far from practicing the virtue of mercy
that they so earnestly preach. As discussed earlier, the context of theatrical
performance adds a further dimension to the interplay of „self‟ and „other‟.
Yet, a closer look at the plays, proves to us that this interplay does not originate
in performance, but is deep-seated within the schemes of the plays themselves.
The Tempest is another good example of the Post-Colonial approach to a
Shakespearean text. Set on a nameless Island is a play that draws on travel
literature, most notably the accounts of a tempest of the Bermuda that nearly
wrecked a fleet of colonial ships sailing from Plymouth to Virginna. Yet that
plot is original probably inflicted by Montaigne's of the Cannibals Essay
translated in 1602. Caliban is the Other, the barbarian sub-human son of
manvolant witch Sycorax. He is animalistic, sexually rapacious. He tries to rape
Miranda.
Alden T. Vaughan in his book Cultural History said
"Caliban stands for the countless victims of European exploitation
,imperialism and colonialization.
Shakespeare wrote ahead of times - like Caliban colonised people were
disinherited ,exploited and subjugated.Like him they learnt the conqueror's
language and perhaps his values.They have like him endured enslavement,
contempt by European usurpers and eventually rebelled
While Aeriel gets on only personal freedom from proespro,Caliban frees
himself from the colonisers.
There seems to be more connection between Shakespearean works and post
colonialism, as he became, during the colonial period, the heart of Englishness
and a measure of humankind itself. The content of Shakespeare’s plays were
derived from and used to establish colonial authority.There are racial inferiors,
but they embody many qualities which render them more human than their
supposed racial superiors. Postcolonial readings offer an insight into cultural
stereotypes in literary works. They challenge the opposition between, pure high
literature and ideologically inspired literature. They make us reconsider our own
position as readers/spectators and we are startled at the abundance of the
Post colonial elements in Shakespeare's works.
Thankyou
The bard of Avon, the playwright-actor and theatre owner widely regarded
as one of the greatest writers in English language. His literary output includes
37 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long narrative poems. As students, you have
answered questions on Shakespeare’s themes, plot construction and character
sketches. We need to look at the relevance of Shakespeare in the second debate
of the 21st century.
Machado de Assis said:
One day, when there is no more Great Britain, when there is no more United
States, when there is no more English language, there will still exist
Shakespeare.
If anniversaries are a good time to take stock, then this is the perfect time
to ask what is the relevance of Shakespeare today and what the future holds for
his place and his poems. The writings of this country writer from Stratford are
legendary. Thoughts and images came to his pen without any effort. English
never sounded so good. The past centuries have been very good to Shakespeare,
recognizing his talent by painting countless additions of work and in the digital
world, we can read, watch or listen on our smart phones and tabs the works of
Shakespeare.
I wish to mention some of the phrases which we use in everyday life not
realizing that these were coined by him.
1. As good luck would have it (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
2. Be all and the end all (Macbeth)
3. Foregone conclusion. (Othello)
4. Knock knock who’s there.(Macbeth)
5. Love is blind. (Merchant of Venice)
6. Forever and a day. (As you like it)
7. Brave new world. (Tempest)
8. Conscience does make cowards of us all. (Hamlet)
9. In my hearts of hearts. (Hamlet)
10. A dish fit for gods. (Juliet Caesar)
11. Give the devil his due. (Henry IV, Part 7)
12. Fainted hearted (Henry VI, Part I)
These phrases establish Shakespeare as a brand, perhaps the most studied
human being in the history of mankind across centuries and there has been a
demand for all Shakespearean products- his life, his love, and his texts. He
excelled incomparably, touched the readers imagination perfectly, though had
nothing to support him. It was the strength of his genius which contributed to
his success. He was writing in the Renaissance period which was a period of
rebirth of the classical/ ancient world. But it is interesting to note that his plays
included non-white characters. Aaron and Othello are North Africans, Cleopatra
is an Egyptian, Caliban and Sycorax are Algerians, Shylock is a Jew, there is
also a prince of Morocco. He included Turks, Arabs and other Africans in his
works pronouncing himself ahead of times.
We must remember that Shakespearean plays were written for performance and
not printing or reading.Actors would carry their dialogues in quarto, a paper
pamphlet, about 200-250 cms in size. The playhouses would own the scripts. It
was only 7 years after his death that his friends Henry Condue and John
Hemmings published the First Folio 1623 which had the 37 plays of
Shakespeare. One strange part of Shakespeare’s time was female parts were
played by young male actors, usually teenage boys. Acting was not considered
to be respectable.
Shakespeare entered the Tamil world through movies of P.S. Mudaliar. He did a
translation of Hamlet in 1906 for the movie Amaladityan. However the most
famous Shakespearean movie adaptation was the ShivajiGaneshan starrer
Manohara. Some other films which were also Shakespearean adaptations were
SolluThampiSollu on As you like it. Bollywood has done many adaptations of
Shakespeare - the much celebrated movie Angoor was based on the comedy of
manners. Macbeth provided the plot for the Maqbool, Othello for Omkara,
Romeo and Juliet for Ramleela and the recent Haider was inspired from the
Hamlet.
The famous hip hop artist Akala who is the recipient of the Bafta and Mobo
awards founded an hip hop production company which studies the social
linguistic and cultural parallels between the works of William Shakespeare and
the modern day hip hop artists.
It is in fact irrelevant to question even what is the relevance of Shakespeare. He
shall always remain a writer for all seasons for all generations. But the question
that the youth ask today are what can we do and where can we go. I think you
owe the world something and that something like your time, energy and talent.
So you need to grow up and get out of your dream world and work to develop a
backbone and not a wish bone, You are important, you are needed. Do not wait
for someone to do something for you someday. That someday is now and that
somebody is you.
Shakespeare said:
Time is slow for those who wait
Very fast for those who are scared
Very long for those who lament
And very short for those who celebrate.
Therefore I want you to make your lives a celebration so that you can
search ahead.
God bless.
