The Economist USA 03.21.2020

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72 Books & arts The EconomistMarch 21st 2020


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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
Free download pdf