Abstract
Seen through the eyes of contemporary Shakespeare criticism, three perhaps four of Shakespeare's plays stand out as ideologically problematic or 'politically incorrect': The Merchant of Venice, Othello, The Tempest and perhaps The Taming of the Shrew. The specific ways in which these plays address, or are seen to address, issues of antiSemitism, race, colonialism, and gender respectively, have elicited a wide range of politically charged responses, both in criticism and performance. None perhaps more so than The Merchant of Venice. The play's dominant action of castigation and forced conversion of Shylock the Jew will inescapably jar post-Holocaust sensibilities to such an extent that critical responses almost inevitably find themselves bogged down in negotiating strategies of dismissal or apology, or both. One of the most recent, and most sophisticated instances of such a negotiation is found in Harold Bloom's chapter on The Merchant of Venice in Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1999). The initial and provocative point made by Bloom is this:
Highlights
Seen through the eyes of contemporary Shakespeare criticism, three perhaps four - of Shakespeare's plays stand out as ideologically problematic or 'politically incorrect': The Merchant of Venice, Othello, The Tempest - and perhaps The Taming of the Shrew
The initial and provocative point made by Bloom is this: One would be blind, deaf and dumb not to recognize that Shakespeare's grand, equivocal comedy The Merchant of Venice is a profoundly antiSemitic work. This remarkably explicit ethical stance towards Shakespeare clearly contradicts Bloom's stated intentions in the introduction to this same book, where he polemicizes what he calls elsewhere "The School of Resentment" or "French Shakespeare": Though professional resenters insist that the aesthetic stance is itself an ideology, I scarcely agree, and I bring nothing but the aesthetic
Harold Bloom's characterization of The Merchant of Venice as a profoundly anti-Semitic play" may be highly problematic, but what is beyond debate is that Shylock from his very first words is cast as a villain
Summary
Seen through the eyes of contemporary Shakespeare criticism, three perhaps four - of Shakespeare's plays stand out as ideologically problematic or 'politically incorrect': The Merchant of Venice, Othello, The Tempest - and perhaps The Taming of the Shrew. The opening scene, always crucial in Shakespeare in terms of setting of mood and themes, is not at all about Shylock.
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