Monday, 9 September 2019

'Shakespeare and theory do not belong to different times and lands; they are instead kissing cousins, speaking a shared tongue.'

Shakespeare & Literary Theory | Jo Gil Harris

Terence Hawkes is real super-amazing in his wonderful book on Structuralism titled, Structuralism and Semiotics! It’s been a primer of sorts for quite many years in a row, for any beginner who’d like to foray into theory proper! Added, some of his key definitions that he’s given us all in this book are awesomeyyy to the highest order! You may wish to read some of these snippets from Terence on our previous blogpost HERE!

But the same gusto and vibrancy seems to be lacking in Terence’s Alternative Shakespeares 2!

Well, the ‘Alternative Shakespeares’ Series has been such a phenomenal contribution to the ‘phenomenon called Shakespeare’, from various theoretical postulates! Housing a host of scholarly treatises from the ‘best in town’ as regards theory, the series has been a rave and a rage for scholars of all hues, bent on politicizing oops theorizing the bard through an unending plethora of –isms to suit their own vested hypos and typos!!! Also, Terence has given an Introduction that seems to have been done more in haste and hence lacking in taste! ;-(

In addition, the treatises contained therein are so scholarly that one needs to approach them more with admiration than with love! [A rehash of Dr. Johnson’s famous line, ‘I admire Jonson, but I love Shakespeare’!]

This little lacuna in Shakespearean criticism from a theoretical framework, has been so beautifully addressed nay remedied by Jonathan Gil Harris in his book titled, Shakespeare and Literary Theory!

If per chance you’ve had the privilege of reading through his The First Firangis or even his Masala Shakespeare, chances are that, you’ve real gotten for yourself a wonderfully refreshing frame of mind to approach this theoretical text too!

Jo has you in splits on almost every other page, although the humour is not quite overt all over! But not quite like how the humour pops up every now and then in his The First Firangis, though! There’s always an impish streak to his characterizations, descriptions and portrayals, which could be rightly said to be his forte, his charm and his hallmark!


Sample this from the Introduction!

Jonathan Gil Harris speaks –

Shakespearian theory is not just about Shakespeare, but also derives its energy from Shakespeare. By reading what theorists have to say about and in concert with Shakespeare, we can begin to get a sense of how much the DNA of contemporary literary theory contains a startling abundance of chromosomes—concepts, preoccupations, ways of using language—that are of Shakespearian provenance.

Some of these chromosomes may be immediately familiar to us from Shakespeare’s writing; some have mutated almost beyond recognition. But they are omnipresent in literary theory’s genome. 

And if ‘Shakespearian theory’ suggests how theory has always been Shakespearian, it can equally help us realize that Shakespeare’s writing has itself always been theoretical. That is why the British literary theorist Terry Eagleton can say 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’.

Such pronouncements may be deliberately and provocatively anachronistic. But they also recognize how the relation between Shakespeare and theory is not one of prior host and belated foreign body. Rather, the relation is familial, grounded in resemblance. Shakespeare and theory do not belong to different times and lands; they are instead kissing cousins, speaking a shared tongue.

Moreover, the fact that Jo is a ‘one-man-army’ as the sole author of the book, also helps!

While it looks like, Terence seems to have had teething problems up his sleeve collating ‘myriad-minded’ Shakespearian critics and critiques under one huge umbrella, Jo has had the blessedness of skillfully skipping over this problem; and hence the man is on a jamboree of sorts right from the word ‘go!’

He has structured his book in an easy-to-read elegant way based on the three powerful currents that have swayed and still continue to sway ‘theory’ for years without measure!

The first part deals with ‘Language and Structure’, and the second part is on ‘Desire and Identity’, whereas the third and final part deals with Culture and Society!’

Taking a leaf from out of his own discourses on Shakespeare, it could be said that, this book on Shakespeare and Literary Theory is ‘honeyed and sweet’ and would sure continue to stimulate, and reward, contemplation!

Happy reading folks!!!

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