The Politics of Contemporary Approaches to Shakespeare Essays -- Postm

AbstractPostmodern performance of Shakespeare, particularity in film, is characterized by a subjective develop within the play not an objective experience from the play. Under postmodernism, Shakespeare to a lower placegoes theorizing, deconstruction, displacement or death of the author, textual criticism, and cultural and political relativism still fails to produce solid answers. Postmodern Shakepseare does not take awayer new meanings but new and more possibilities for contemplating meaning. This fails both the traditionalist who relishes in reviving universal meaning, and the progressive who relishes propagating their political diatribe. Traditionalists can give a sigh of relief that Shakespeare thrives in the postmodern age by way of a growing number of Shakespeare troupes and festivals, the reconstruction of the Globe Theater, websites, stage productions and film (Worthen 2).-----------------Paper begins here-------------------A number of years ago, genus Arizona State Unive rsity denied tenure to the head of the graduate theater program because of his commitment to teaching acting through the classics, most prominently through the plays of William Shakespeare. The professor under controversy, Professor Jared Sakren, hailed from Juilliard. ASU had recruited him primarily to build a graduate acting department. An equation for success turned into a recipe for disaster. The feminists in the department had purposed to kill off the classics. Sakren was told to stop teaching the sexist works of Shakespeare or to revise the ending to such plays as The Taming of the Shrew in order to appease women (Alexander). Accompanying these recommendations, Sakren was also asked to reduce the academic rigor of his program. His office was searched and... ...ristopher, Klooss, Wolfgang. Tier, Germany Wissenschaftlicher, 2000. 185- 199.Makaryk, Irene. R. Encyclopedia of contemporary literary theory approaches, scholars, terms. Toronto Univeristy of Toronto Press, 1993.Neil son, William Allan and Charles Jarvix Hill, ed. The Complete Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare. Cambridge The Riverside Press, 1942.Reinfandt, Christoph. Reading Shakespeare Historically Postmodern Attitudes and the History Plays. Historicizing/Contemporizing Shakespeare Essays in honor of Rudolf Bhm. Eds. Bode, Christopher, Klooss, Wolfgang. Tier, Germany Wissenschaftlicher, 2000. p 73-89.Shaughnessy, Robert. The Last Post Henry V, War Culture and the Postmodern Shakespeare. Theatre Survey. 391 (1998) 41-61.Worthen, W.B. Shakespeare and Postmodern Production An Introduction. Theatre Survey. 391 (1998) 1-5.