Postcolonial Shakespeare
Traditional literary history treats Shakespeare as the best
thing that happened to the English language, English culture and the literature
of the entire world. From the 1980s, there has been an opposition to this
reading of Shakespeare's greatness. Critics adopting many different theoretical
and ideological positions have found problems with Shakespeare's characters,
plots and politics. Contemporary critical readings prefer a highly political
reading of Shakespeare's literary texts, paying attention to various
ideological biases and political issues in his work. This includes the (1)
colonial, (2) patriarçhal, (3) racial, (4) heterosexist and (5) bourgeois
themes embodied in the plays.
The Renaissance presented itself in certain ways- humanist,
rational- scientific, universal, liberal - by masking very serious oppressive
structures. Homosexuals, women, other races, the working classes and vagrants
and the homeless were exploited, controlled and often became victims of social
power structures. Social structures, claiming to be universal and humanitarian,
served the interests of the ruling classes. Dissent was put down in the name of
social harmony and order. England began to fashion itself as a country
favouring justice fair play and equality by comparing itself with other races
(which were being discovered through the voyages). In fact, England's image of
itself was constructed precisely through this racial 'other, the theoretical
opposite of what England was. Terms like fair became associated with the colour
of the skin when Europe met the dark-skinned races (as shown by Kim Hall in
Things of Darkness, 1995. Also, see Richmond Barbour's Before Orientalism,
2003).
The upper classes imposed their coat of arms on the land through
maps and local histories that erased the working classes from
the landscape. While homosexuality, transvestism and alternate
sexualities were common within Renaissance and Shakespearean England, they were
not talked about and were often the subject of strong condemnation from the law
and the church. Masculinity' and 'femininity' were constructed as concepts
during this period. That is, concepts and norms of what masculinity/femininity
meant, how men and women were supposed to behave and the relations between
them, were framed during this period.
Postcolonial theory seeks to re-read English literary texts in
the context of European colonialism of Asian and African nations. Colonialism
was a feature of the period between 1600 and the mid-20h century It meant that
white men and women governed the lives social, economic, political and, often,
cultural of Asian and African populations. It was a white versus black
situation, where one side (the white) had power over the other (the black).
Colonialism, in addition to being a military and political
condition, was also a very powerful cultural event in the history of Africa,
Asia and South America. Through literature, the arts, media and education,
colonial rulers often presented certain images of the Asians- as poor,
helpless, traitorous, primitive, feminine and such. All such images were used
to justify white colonial rule as a savior of the Asian race. Thus, cultural
forms such as museums and literary texts popularized specific ideas and images
of the two races. Culture becomes a site of politics and power-play.
Postcolonial readings of literary texts show how race and power are disguised
in the texts themes. They seek to expose the political, racial, masculinist
(patriarchal) politics that are encoded into literary themes.
In the case of Shakespeare in particular, there has been
considerable postcolonial interest. Since Shakespeare remains the most popular
(canonical) literary figure in the world, it is natural that he and his works
must be seen less as individual than as institutions. How does Shakespeare come
to occupy such a high position? What are the politics that make Shakespeare a
popular, staged, studied, researched and critiqued text? These are some of the
questions that postcolonial studies ask.
Postcolonial
readings of Shakespeare address the following themes and issues in his
works:
·
Shakespeare's work
often gives a fictional account of actual political conditions of slavery,
colonial conquest and native suffering. A play like The Tempest, with its pair of Prospero and Caliban, is actually
about the colonial rule of the white man over a native inhabitant.
·
It looks at how
English language itself expands its vocabulary in the new context of
colonialism. Encountering new races and cultures, English required a new
vocabulary to describe what the Englishmen and women saw. Thus, the term 'fair
began to describe not only a sense of justice, but also a complexion, 'Black
becomes associated with evil and, by extension, the black race itself becomes
the symbol for evil (Kim Hall, 1995)
·
It explores how race
and gender are crucial elements of the Shakespearean context. As noted above, The Tempest is about racial conquest. Othello and The Merchant of Venice also look at the power relations between
white and non-white races. These plays are about the 'differences' between
races and cultures. They deal with the cultural encounter of races (African or
Jewish versus English or European) and cultures (native or non-white versus. (English
or European).
·
It looks at how
Shakespeare's plays comment on (or quietly erase the English politics of
acquisition and colonization. For instance, Terence Hawkes has argued that Henry IV is about the English attempts
to bring Wales under English power. King
Lear is also about land ownership.
·
Ania Loomba, Michael
Neill and others are interested in unravelling the politics of Shakespeare's global popularity. They note that he is
extremely popular even in the non-English speaking world. In a way, there are 'Shakespeares'
appropriated by writers and performers worldwide. Reviews of Shakespeare's
performances, film adaptation, translation, curriculum and such efforts
radically appropriate his work for all people. David Johnson, for instance,
looks at how education policy-makers in colonial Africa sought to spread the
study of Shakespeare there.
·
Such readings argue
that while Shakespeare may have been using European history as his immediate
source, the themes often A involve a history of other nations. That is, the
history of Europe in Shakespeare's period 'cannot' be separated from its
political context of colonial travel, colonial power and racial politics. (Nayar, 2009)
Works Cited
Nayar, P. K. (2009). Rereading the Renaissance. In P.
K. Nayar, A Short History of English Literature (pp. 107-109). New
Delhi, India : Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.
https://repeatingislands.com/2015/09/30/ann-what-is-postcolonial-thought/
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