Readaloud: "Shakespeare in a Divided America, by James Shapiro
Details
This is a read-aloud session, with all text shared on-screen, and discussions of what we just read between rounds – like a small-group seminar. There are no prerequisites; you do not need to purchase the book for yourself, although we encourage you to do so, as it is well worth it!
The starting point for the current session will generally be given in a pinned comment on the event page. This being a non-fiction book, you do not need to have been with us from the beginning to enjoy the session.
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[Amazon]: The plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes—presidents and activists, soldiers and writers, conservatives and liberals alike—have turned to Shakespeare’s works to explore the nation’s fault lines. In a narrative arching from Revolutionary times to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role of Shakespeare’s four-hundred-year-old tragedies and comedies in illuminating the many concerns on which American identity has turned.
From Abraham Lincoln’s and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth’s, competing Shakespeare obsessions to the 2017 controversy over the staging of Julius Caesar in Central Park, in which a Trump-like leader is assassinated, Shakespeare in a Divided America reveals how no writer has been more embraced, more weaponized, or has shed more light on the hot-button issues in our history.
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Late-comers, unless we know you, will generally not be admitted, as it disrupts the reading. However, it's fine for attendees to drop off at any time they want.