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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.1347  Thursday, 31 December 1998.

[1]     From:   Sean Lawrence <seanlawrence@writeme.com>
        Date:   Sunday, 27 Dec 1998 13:20:31 -0800
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.1336 Re: Tillyard

[2]     From:   Hugh Grady <grady@castle.beaver.edu>
        Date:   Tuesday, 29 Dec 1998 20:19:51 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.1336 Re: Tillyard


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <seanlawrence@writeme.com>
Date:           Sunday, 27 Dec 1998 13:20:31 -0800
Subject: 9.1336 Re: Tillyard
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.1336 Re: Tillyard

Hugh Grady writes:

> Certainly Tillyard's
> hegemony was never absolute. It is clear from his "The Muse in Chains"
> that his most influential works grew out of his distaste for F. R.
> Leavis and were meant to be an alternative to the broader New Critical
> movement (to use the American term) altogether. As a whole, Shakespeare
> studies in the 50s and 60s were probably more "New Critical" than
> "Tillyardian." But as we have learned in recent posts, Tillyard's
> influence was remarkably strong in UK secondary education, and as late
> as a work published in 1975, David Bergeron wrote that Tillyard's work
> on the histories "has become the traditional interpretation"
> ("Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide).

This makes me wonder if Tillyard was always already traditional, even a
bit passé, throughout his period of supposed hegemony.  There`s an irony
in this, since the world picture he describes is almost always described
in nostalgic terms by characters within the plays.  By the time Ulysses
makes his famous speech, authority has already been called into doubt.
Henry V`s proclamation of his birthright follows the death of Richard.
There would be something wonderful in discovering that the major
critical description of this world view was also the object of a strange
and selective retrospection, vilified after the event, where things like
proper authority are yearned for nostalgically.  In both cases, a set of
ideas are constructed as tradition, and always located just a few years
before the speaker desires or derides them.

Cheers,
Sean.

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Hugh Grady <grady@castle.beaver.edu>
Date:           Tuesday, 29 Dec 1998 20:19:51 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 9.1336 Re: Tillyard
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.1336 Re: Tillyard

I can't think of a less likely target than Terence Hawkes for the charge
of intellectual recycling. Over many years there have been few
Shakespeare scholars who have played such a strategic role in bringing
new directions to Shakespeare studies, and I and many others are
indebted to his pioneering labors.

Best,
Hugh Grady

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