The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2298  Wednesday, 29 December 1999.

[1]     From:   Sean Lawrence <
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        Date:   Thursday, 23 Dec 1999 10:13:25 -0800
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice

[2]     From:   L. Swilley <
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        Date:   Thursday, 23 Dec 1999 13:26:17 -0600
        Subj:   A Different Shylock

[3]     From:   Robert Peters <
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        Date:   Thursday, 23 Dec 1999 21:13:47 +0100
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice

[4]     From:   Dana Shilling <
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        Date:   Friday, 24 Dec 1999 10:22:12 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice

[5]     From:   Tim Richards <
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        Date:   Saturday, 25 Dec 1999 22:37:44 +1100
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice

[6]     From:   Carol Barton <
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        Date:   Sunday, 26 Dec 1999 12:06:55 EST
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice

[7]     From:   Joanna Hindle <
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        Date:   Sunday, 26 Dec 1999 16:17:57 -1000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <
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Date:           Thursday, 23 Dec 1999 10:13:25 -0800
Subject: 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.2292 The Merchant of Venice

Allan Blackman observes:

>The _The Merchant of Venice_ gets little attention in this group.  Is it
>because, in this age of political correctness, the play makes some
>uncomfortable?  Is it true, as Bloom contends, that "the Holocaust made
>and makes MV unplayable, at least in what appears to be its own terms"?
>
>Can one teach or direct MV today & be faithful to "its own terms"?

I suppose that that depends what one means by "its own terms".  Almost
all the discussion of MV seems to do with anti-semitism, which I suppose
is to say that it's discussed in terms forced upon us by the meeting of
the play text with twentieth-century history.

I actually feel that we discuss MV quite a bit in this group-certainly
more than, say, Henry VI, Part 1 or Two Noble Kinsmen-but almost all of
the discussion centers around its anti-Semitism.  The real question
isn't whether we can discuss MV, but whether we can talk about anything
other than its politics.

Cheers,
Se