The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0457 Friday, 6 July 2007
From: Dan Venning <
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Date: Thursday, 5 Jul 2007 17:56:43 -0400
Subject: 18.0452 Degree in Shakespeare
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0452 Degree in Shakespeare
Dear Sam:
Perhaps Donald Bloom did give the answer you liked best, but you didn't
originally ask about the value to society of individuals studying
Shakespeare. Instead, you originally asked "...does studying Shakespeare
and other great writers make you a better person? A more peaceful
person? More mature? Or merely a Shakespeare anorak?"
As I read your questions, you were asking about the benefits of studying
literature on a personal level, not a social one. To suggest that
reading and studying literature "makes you more aware of fellow human
beings," "increasing higher order thinking skills," or "increases your
ability to argue critically" don't seem vague in the least to me, at
least on a personal level. If you wanted only social benefits, you
should have asked for that.
I don't think it's particularly collegial to raise a question (or a
series of questions), and then to dismiss the multiplicity of answers
you receive as "vague and unconvincing" without explaining why you find
our answers so unfulfilling, moreover suggesting that we are all nothing
but "nerdy literary buffs with absolutely no idea of the true social
implications of propagating Shakespeare's writing."
You apparently wanted a different response: one concerned with social
politics, ideology, and what you call "opposing visions of global
morality" (a phrase I'd say is more vague than anything posted by the
earlier scholars on this topic). Perhaps if the only thing that matters
to you is political activism (or political activism of a particular
ideology), Shakespeare scholarship doesn't have as much to offer. But
some people don't subvert all of their interests and passions to
politics, and can see the equal importance of art, theatre, language,
critical reading, and plain old entertainment on personal and cultural
levels.
Dan Venning
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