The Economist - USA (2020-03-21)

72 Books & arts The EconomistMarch 21st 2020

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A

brahamlincolnspentnomorethan

six months in school, but he knew

Shakespeare’s plays intimately and often

recited favourite passages by heart. Befit-

ting a president who waged a devastating

war, Lincoln was drawn to the speeches of

leaders under strain—particularly Mac-

beth—for the way they expressed nuanced

feelingsofguiltandgrief.Yetthepoetwho

wassucha comforttoLincolnmayhave

alsoinspiredhiskiller.JohnWilkesBooth

wasanactor,andpartialtoShakespeare’s

darkmenofaction,particularlythoseless

inclinedtointrospection. Inaletterde-

fendinghisassassinationofthepresident,

BoothcomparedhimselftoShakespeare’s

Brutus,whostabsthetyrannicalCaesarout

of“hisloveofRome”.

For James Shapiro, a leading Shake-

spearescholarandauthorof“Shakespeare

ina DividedAmerica”,thisstorycaptures

theprofoundroletheBardhaslongplayed

inhelpingAmericans grapplewiththeir

evolvingrepublic.The FoundingFathers

lookedtohimforinsightintotreachery,se-

ditionand political rebellion.Alexis de

Tocquevillenoticedintheearly19thcen-

turythattherewas“hardlya pioneer’shut”

withouta fewvolumesoftheplays.Itmay

seemoddthata countryfoundedbythe-

atre-aversePuritansandanti-Britishrevo-

lutionaries would embrace an English

playwright. Yet many of the issues that pre-

occupied Shakespeare in the late 16th cen-

tury—“the dangers of autocratic rule; the

imagined threat posed by those of different

races, religions or nationalities; the slip-

pery boundaries of gender”—haunted

Americans centuries later, and do still.

And because these complex plays in-

spire conflicting interpretations, they have

offered Americans rare cultural common

ground for airing disparate views. In his of-

ten fascinating book, Mr Shapiro explores

specific plays and productions that have

reflected national concerns at fraught mo-

ments in the country’s past.

For example, both slave-owners and ab-

olitionists saw in “Othello” a cautionary

tale of racial equality. John Quincy Adams,

a former president and outspoken aboli-

tionist, wrote in a fiery essay that Desde-

monagotwhatshedeservedforher“un-

natural” interracial desire. During the

mid-19th-centurycrusadetoconquerthe

westernfrontier,machoidealsmadethe

somewhateffeminateroleofRomeo“un-

playable”formaleactors.Intheearly20th

centuryanti-immigrantlawmakers cited

theshunningofCalibanin“TheTempest”

intheirpushforrace-basedquotas.

Thesecases,MrShapiroargues,show

howShakespearealertsAmericanstothe

“toxic prejudicespoisoning our cultural

climate”.Whethertheysalvesuchantago-

nismsaswellasexposingthemisanother

matter.Sometimestheplaysfunctionlike

Rorschachteststhatreveal andconfirm

whateverviewerswanttosee.

Considera controversialproductionof

“JuliusCaesar”inNewYorkin 2017 (pic-

tured),whichleftnoconfusionoverthein-

tendedmodernparallels.Caesarwasa tall,

blusteringblondindarksuitsandoverlong

tieswhosecomelywifehada Slavicaccent.

Anyonefamiliarwiththeplayknowsthat

the brutal assassination, notionally in de-

fence of the republic, is more ugly than he-

roic, and that the conspiracy ends badly. In

this case, Oskar Eustis, the director, aimed

to subvert the contemporary appeal of po-

litical violence. But after Fox News played a

12-second clip of this murderous scene, de-

void of context, public pressure on social

media forced corporate sponsors to with-

draw their support. Mr Eustis and others

received death threats.

Like Mr Shapiro’s other examples, the

production handily highlighted the na-

tion’s rifts. But rather than contend with

the play’s ideas, critics simply pushed to

shut it down. There is a grim and timely

irony in the fact that a show hoping to in-

spire debate about threats to democracy in-

stead revealed “how easily democratic

norms could crumble”. 7

The play’s the thing

Brave new world

Shakespeare in a Divided America.By

James Shapiro. Penguin Press; 320 pages;

$27. Faber & Faber; £20

Taken at the flood

“H

e was carefulwithme,”theVa-

nessa Wye of 2017 tells the reader,

and herself. Another victim has denounced

Jacob Strane, the high-school teacher who

“tried so hard to be good”, but Vanessa is

sure that her case is different. Or almost

sure: her memories are “shadowy, incom-

plete”, and she needs Strane “to fill in the

gaps”, as he always has. Yet it is clear from

the drugs and the booze, her pained family

relations and stalled career as a hotel con-

cierge, that her life has been derailed.

The scene of Kate Elizabeth Russell’s

gripping and unsettling debut novel

switches to 2000, when Vanessa, again

narrating, is at a boarding school in Maine,

a vulnerable outsider on a scholarship. She

is 15; Strane is 42. His practised grooming

techniques are deniable but unmistakable,

albeit not to Vanessa herself. He pays her

creepy compliments. “I’m special,” she

rhapsodises. “I’m special. I’m special.” He

critiques her poems; he puts his hand on

her knee; he makes her pity him for the

risks he claims to be running. Then he

smuggles her into his home and tells her

she is in charge, though “after a while he

starts asking permission after he’s already

done the thing he’s asking about.”

Strane’s crimes, and their conse-

quences, unspool in alternating chapters.

He and Vanessa continue to see each other,

even though—as the reader understands,

though she does not—she is soon too old

Arresting new fiction

He said, she says

My Dark Vanessa.By Kate Elizabeth

Russell. William Morrow; 384 pages; $27.99.

Fourth Estate; £12.99