Re-reading the Renaissance

Abstract

Traditional literary history treats Shakespeare as the best thing that happened to the English language, English culture and the literature of the entire world. From the 1980s, there has been an opposition to this reading of Shakespeare's greatness. Critics adopting many different theoretical and ideological positions have found problems with Shakespeare's characters, plots and politics. Contemporary critical readings prefer a highly political reading of Shakespeare's literary texts, paying attention to various ideological biases and political issues in his work. This includes the (1) colonial, (2) patriarchal, (3) racial, (4) heterosexist and (5) bourgeois themes embodied in the plays. The Renaissance presented itself in certain ways – humanist, rational-scientific, universal, liberal – by masking very serious oppressive structures. Homosexuals, women, other races, the working classes, and vagrants and the homeless were exploited, controlled and often became victims of social power structures. Social structures, claiming to be universal and humanitarian, served the interests of the ruling classes. Dissent was put down in the name of social harmony and order. England began to fashion itself as a country favouring justice, fair play and equality by comparing itself with other races (which were being discovered through the voyages). In fact, England's image of itself was constructed precisely through this racial ‘other’, the theoretical opposite of what England was. Terms like ‘fair’ became associated with the colour of the skin when Europe met the dark-skinned races (as shown by Kim Hall in Things of Darkness , 1995.