SHAKSPER 2001: Re: Bard Bade Goodbye

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 04/11/01 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.0829  Wednesday, 11 April 2001

[1]     From:   Sean Lawrence <seanlawrence@writeme.com>
        Date:   Tuesday, 10 Apr 2001 11:18:28 -0700
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0817 Re: Bard Bade Goodbye

[2]     From:   Marcus Dahl <Marcusdahl@aol.com>
        Date:   Tuesday, 10 Apr 2001 20:06:46 EDT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0817 Re: Bard Bade Goodbye


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <seanlawrence@writeme.com>
Date:           Tuesday, 10 Apr 2001 11:18:28 -0700
Subject: 12.0817 Re: Bard Bade Goodbye
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.0817 Re: Bard Bade Goodbye

Syd Kasten observes that

>But the Japanese Kurosawa used Shakespeare as a seed and sent us back,
>as through a warp in space-time, uniquely Japanese gardens in his
>renderings of Shakespearean themes and structures. I don't think Hughes'
>bi-directional metaphor of "doorway" is that far out.

I think it interesting that Kurosawa was denounced by French
intellectuals (I don't know of what school) as "not Japanese enough".
Since his work borrowed so heavily from Shakespeare, not to mention
Hollywood, some people couldn't accept it as Japanese.  There's
something in this, I think, about seeing elements of western culture as
purely corrosive, a pollution rather than an addition to anything with
which they come into contact.

Cheers,
Seán.

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Marcus Dahl <Marcusdahl@aol.com>
Date:           Tuesday, 10 Apr 2001 20:06:46 EDT
Subject: 12.0817 Re: Bard Bade Goodbye
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.0817 Re: Bard Bade Goodbye

T.Hawkes writes:

>Chris Baldick argues that the provisions of the India Act
>accordingly became '. . .  an important precedent, officially (sic.)
>encouraging the study of English literature for the good of the empire'
>(Baldick, 'The Social Mission of English Criticism, Oxford 1983, p. 70).
>Courses in English literature involving Shakespeare were certainly
>taught in many schools and universities well before the twentieth
>century. In University College London, for example, the literature
>examination for the year 1854-55 firmly specifies the presence of the
>Bard on the syllabus and includes questions such as >>etcetc

Terence Hawkes answers my query by quoting secondary sources...fair
enough for a literary critic I suppose, though it is difficult to be
bowled over by Chris Baldick's 'arguments' and moreover Prof. Hawkes'
first example of S being "taught" is purely in terms of comprehension
(ie. could have been any passage of rhetorical English prose for a
question of the kind "what does this mean?" ; the second example makes
me question the nature of the course at "University College London"
(hardly an ordinary "school" I would have thought) and (without delving)
the course was most likely a forerunner of the adult extension courses I
mentioned for the 'developing classes' - again hardly representative of
any "official" (i mean government sponsored) policy on the part of
Imperialistic Teachers of Shakespeare. I might add that UCE is not
Oxbridge (i.e. the only real universities up until very recently in the
UK and certainly before the widening horizons of the extension
lecturers).

Prof. Hawkes' regarding the "1855 Civil Service / East India Company
outlined plans under the provisions of the government's India Act of
1853 to institute a set of competitive examinations for prestigious
administrative posts" again proves nothing of the larger scale global
empire-Shakespearising (or at least certainly none of its ostensive
uniqueness) which his initial post attempted to outline. It was for
example a well-known administrative feature of both the Chinese and
Japanese governments in the 19th century to develop the skills of their
bureaucrats through the setting of aesthetic / literary examinations and
tasks of memorisation on the subject of their respective literatures - a
task quite independent of the bureaucrats' duties and of any wider
imperial aims.

Is then to be a "Presentist" to mis-represent the past or merely to
forget it?

Cheers,
Marcus.

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Hardy M. Cook, editor@bowiestate.edu
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