In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought ... more In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought a connection to the ancient Roman republican past. William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has an honoured place in the creation of that American democratic ethos. While performances during the colonial and post-revolutionary periods may have been rare, this play was frequently taught at that time, usually in excerpted format. While Shakespeare's text is ambiguous ideologically, balanced between libertarian and conservative monarchical elements, these excerpts constructed an unabashedly republican drama whose purpose was to advocate for democracy, infusing the patriotic ethos of the republic into American youth and immigrants.
<jats:p>Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth ce... more <jats:p>Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merchant of Venice has a history of being subject to censorship in secondary schools in the United States. While in the past it has often been argued that the play can be used to teach tolerance and to fight societal evils such as xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, I argue that this is no longer the case due to the proliferation of performance methods in the classroom, and the resultant emphasis on watching film and stage productions. Because images – particularly film images – carry such strong emotional valence, they have the capacity to subsume other pedagogical aspects of this drama in their emotional power and memorability. I therefore question whether the debate over teaching this play is truly a question of 'censorship', or simply educational choice.</jats:p>
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel expl... more Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel explorations of the conflicts between autocratic, oligarchic, and populist notions of government. In these dramas, we have titular characters who can be characterised as potentially tyrannical and who encounter resistance, but these are two antithetical kinds of tyrant and antithetical forms of resistance. The two plays also foreground the political force of the masses and their potential for enacting change, but at the same time demonstrate how the power of the people can be harnessed by a demagogue for his own ends. Both dramas are therefore ambiguous: scholars differ about whether the plays are conservatively monarchical or progressively republican in their ideology. Engaging with Krista Ratcliffe’s rhetorical theories, I will suggest that one of the ways in which these plays generate ambiguity is by opening multiple paths for audience (or reader) identification with characters; that is, instead of identifying primarily or exclusively with a protagonist, several possibilities for identification are opened by the text, across socio-economic strata. In doing so, the dramas do not merely foster ambiguity, they also create multiple stories for multiple audiences.
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel expl... more Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel explorations of the conflicts between autocratic, oligarchic, and populist notions of government. In these dramas, we have titular characters who can be characterised as potentially tyrannical and who encounter resistance, but these are two antithetical kinds of tyrant and antithetical forms of resistance. The two plays also foreground the political force of the masses and their potential for enacting change, but at the same time demonstrate how the power of the people can be harnessed by a demagogue for his own ends. Both dramas are therefore ambiguous: scholars differ about whether the plays are conservatively monarchical or progressively republican in their ideology. Engaging with Krista Ratcliffe’s rhetorical theories, I will suggest that one of the ways in which these plays generate ambiguity is by opening multiple paths for audience (or reader) identification with characters; that is, instead of identifying primarily or exclusively with a protagonist, several possibilities for identification are opened by the text, across socio-economic strata. In doing so, the dramas do not merely foster ambiguity, they also create multiple stories for multiple audiences.
ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 2022
To date, much of the scholarly work on Coriolanus has focused on defining the quality that causes... more To date, much of the scholarly work on Coriolanus has focused on defining the quality that causes the titular character to fall from the heights of heroic achievement and recognition to exile and banishment from the very city he rescued. Whether the quality is explicitly or implicitly conceptualized as hamartia, scholars have sought to define what is missing or deficient in the eponymous hero. The purpose of this article is not to assert that any prior scholars were wrong, but rather to suggest the presence of a deficiency that underlies the others, the root cause of these infelicitous characteristics—to say nothing of Martius’s arrogance, willfulness, and cruelty—and that is: a failure to listen.
among others, have fostered and developed this approach to teaching Shakespeare. In his introduct... more among others, have fostered and developed this approach to teaching Shakespeare. In his introduction to the 1990 special teaching issue of Shakespeare Quarterly, Ralph Allen concludes that performance pedagogy has become so accepted as to represent a methodological 'given' and that 'the argument for its benefits has won the field' (iii). Performance pedagogy has become an -or perhaps 'the' -established practice for teaching Shakespeare. While this may have been theoretically true, as a university student in the 1990s, I never encountered this methodology. Nevertheless, as a novice teacher confronted with the dif-ficult task of teaching Julius Caesar to a group of easily-bored adolescents, despite having CONTACT Esther B. schupak
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2021
The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the performance of religious and gender ... more The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the performance of religious and gender difference in Israeli academia. As an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman in Israel, my identity uneasily ho...
Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merc... more Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merchant of Venice has a history of being subject to censorship in secondary schools in the United States. While in the past it has often been argued that the play can be used to teach tolerance and to fight societal evils such as xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, I argue that this is no longer the case due to the proliferation of performance methods in the classroom, and the resultant emphasis on watching film and stage productions. Because images – particularly film images – carry such strong emotional valence, they have the capacity to subsume other pedagogical aspects of this drama in their emotional power and memorability. I therefore question whether the debate over teaching this play is truly a question of ‘censorship’, or simply educational choice.
Listening Rhetoric in the Diverse Classroom: Suggestions for Praxis Modern college classrooms are... more Listening Rhetoric in the Diverse Classroom: Suggestions for Praxis Modern college classrooms are increasingly diverse. We face classes where eighteenyear-olds sit beside grandmothers, native speakers of English sit beside speakers of other languages, and Christians, Jews, and Muslims share classrooms with atheists and agnostics. How do we take such a varied and ideologically differentiated group of pupils and bridge their differences in order to bring them together into a classroom community? Not only is the creation of such a community critical to pedagogical success, but in a larger sense it is critical as a model for the effective functioning of a democratic society. My purpose is to suggest that the concept of listening rhetoric, as it informs classroom practice, has the potential to serve this goal. I teach in Israel, where students come to class with deep cultural, religious, and ideological divides: students who come to my class are often for the first time having an authentic encounter with someone of different religion or ethnicity. At the beginning of the semester, they usually sit in clumps: Arab male students, Arab female students (who sometimes comprise the majority in my classes), secular Jews, religious Jews, a sprinkling of Christians, and students from the FSU. But I have found that through the practice of listening rhetoric, even such extremely diverse groups of students can become a community.
This article explores the way gender resonates in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar through an active s... more This article explores the way gender resonates in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar through an active study of live performance. Combining pedagogy with performance as an interpretive methodology, this research focuses upon using my unique classroom situation, teaching ultra-Orthodox Jewish adolescent females, as a platform for analysis. Performing Julius Caesar in my classroom represents an inversion of early modern all-male performance. The question explored in this study is: what does this reversal illuminate about constructions of gender among ultra-Orthodox adolescents?
Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merc... more Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merchant of Venice has a history of being subject to censorship in secondary schools in the United States. While in the past it has often been argued that the play can be used to teach tolerance and to fight societal evils such as xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, I argue that this is no longer the case due to the proliferation of performance methods in the classroom, and the resultant emphasis on watching film and stage productions. Because images-particularly film images-carry such strong emotional valence, they have the capacity to subsume other pedagogical aspects of this drama in their emotional power and memorability. I therefore question whether the debate over teaching this play is truly a question of 'censorship', or simply educational choice.
Although performance-based pedagogy has clearly given new life to the study of Shakespeare, with ... more Although performance-based pedagogy has clearly given new life to the study of Shakespeare, with ‘performance’ or ‘active’ approaches becoming increasingly dominant as a method, acquiring the status of the 'proper' way to teach Shakespeare, it is important to examine the limitations of this method. This article will begin by surveying the theoretical basis for performance pedagogy and the spectrum of performance methods available and will then go on to address three issues: limitations of time, deficient student acting, and lack of teacher expertise. The issue of time can be addressed by the cost-benefit analysis of methods, the use of alternative approaches, the incorporation of film, and desk-based performance. Poor acting can be improved through the acting exercises of Cicely Berry. Teachers can compensate for a lack of theatrical expertise by taking courses and studying the materials recommended in the article. Keywords: Performance pedagogy; Shakespeare; pedagogy; performance; active approaches
In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought ... more In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought a connection to the ancient Roman republican past. William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has an honoured place in the creation of that American democratic ethos. While performances during the colonial and post-revolutionary periods may have been rare, this play was frequently taught at that time, usually in excerpted format. While Shakespeare's text is ambiguous ideologically, balanced between libertarian and conservative monarchical elements, these excerpts constructed an unabashedly republican drama whose purpose was to advocate for democracy, infusing the patriotic ethos of the republic into American youth and immigrants.
In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought ... more In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought a connection to the ancient Roman republican past. William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has an honoured place in the creation of that American democratic ethos. While performances during the colonial and post-revolutionary periods may have been rare, this play was frequently taught at that time, usually in excerpted format. While Shakespeare's text is ambiguous ideologically, balanced between libertarian and conservative monarchical elements, these excerpts constructed an unabashedly republican drama whose purpose was to advocate for democracy, infusing the patriotic ethos of the republic into American youth and immigrants.
<jats:p>Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth ce... more <jats:p>Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merchant of Venice has a history of being subject to censorship in secondary schools in the United States. While in the past it has often been argued that the play can be used to teach tolerance and to fight societal evils such as xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, I argue that this is no longer the case due to the proliferation of performance methods in the classroom, and the resultant emphasis on watching film and stage productions. Because images – particularly film images – carry such strong emotional valence, they have the capacity to subsume other pedagogical aspects of this drama in their emotional power and memorability. I therefore question whether the debate over teaching this play is truly a question of 'censorship', or simply educational choice.</jats:p>
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel expl... more Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel explorations of the conflicts between autocratic, oligarchic, and populist notions of government. In these dramas, we have titular characters who can be characterised as potentially tyrannical and who encounter resistance, but these are two antithetical kinds of tyrant and antithetical forms of resistance. The two plays also foreground the political force of the masses and their potential for enacting change, but at the same time demonstrate how the power of the people can be harnessed by a demagogue for his own ends. Both dramas are therefore ambiguous: scholars differ about whether the plays are conservatively monarchical or progressively republican in their ideology. Engaging with Krista Ratcliffe’s rhetorical theories, I will suggest that one of the ways in which these plays generate ambiguity is by opening multiple paths for audience (or reader) identification with characters; that is, instead of identifying primarily or exclusively with a protagonist, several possibilities for identification are opened by the text, across socio-economic strata. In doing so, the dramas do not merely foster ambiguity, they also create multiple stories for multiple audiences.
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel expl... more Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus are instructive to consider in tandem as parallel explorations of the conflicts between autocratic, oligarchic, and populist notions of government. In these dramas, we have titular characters who can be characterised as potentially tyrannical and who encounter resistance, but these are two antithetical kinds of tyrant and antithetical forms of resistance. The two plays also foreground the political force of the masses and their potential for enacting change, but at the same time demonstrate how the power of the people can be harnessed by a demagogue for his own ends. Both dramas are therefore ambiguous: scholars differ about whether the plays are conservatively monarchical or progressively republican in their ideology. Engaging with Krista Ratcliffe’s rhetorical theories, I will suggest that one of the ways in which these plays generate ambiguity is by opening multiple paths for audience (or reader) identification with characters; that is, instead of identifying primarily or exclusively with a protagonist, several possibilities for identification are opened by the text, across socio-economic strata. In doing so, the dramas do not merely foster ambiguity, they also create multiple stories for multiple audiences.
ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 2022
To date, much of the scholarly work on Coriolanus has focused on defining the quality that causes... more To date, much of the scholarly work on Coriolanus has focused on defining the quality that causes the titular character to fall from the heights of heroic achievement and recognition to exile and banishment from the very city he rescued. Whether the quality is explicitly or implicitly conceptualized as hamartia, scholars have sought to define what is missing or deficient in the eponymous hero. The purpose of this article is not to assert that any prior scholars were wrong, but rather to suggest the presence of a deficiency that underlies the others, the root cause of these infelicitous characteristics—to say nothing of Martius’s arrogance, willfulness, and cruelty—and that is: a failure to listen.
among others, have fostered and developed this approach to teaching Shakespeare. In his introduct... more among others, have fostered and developed this approach to teaching Shakespeare. In his introduction to the 1990 special teaching issue of Shakespeare Quarterly, Ralph Allen concludes that performance pedagogy has become so accepted as to represent a methodological 'given' and that 'the argument for its benefits has won the field' (iii). Performance pedagogy has become an -or perhaps 'the' -established practice for teaching Shakespeare. While this may have been theoretically true, as a university student in the 1990s, I never encountered this methodology. Nevertheless, as a novice teacher confronted with the dif-ficult task of teaching Julius Caesar to a group of easily-bored adolescents, despite having CONTACT Esther B. schupak
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2021
The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the performance of religious and gender ... more The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the performance of religious and gender difference in Israeli academia. As an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman in Israel, my identity uneasily ho...
Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merc... more Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merchant of Venice has a history of being subject to censorship in secondary schools in the United States. While in the past it has often been argued that the play can be used to teach tolerance and to fight societal evils such as xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, I argue that this is no longer the case due to the proliferation of performance methods in the classroom, and the resultant emphasis on watching film and stage productions. Because images – particularly film images – carry such strong emotional valence, they have the capacity to subsume other pedagogical aspects of this drama in their emotional power and memorability. I therefore question whether the debate over teaching this play is truly a question of ‘censorship’, or simply educational choice.
Listening Rhetoric in the Diverse Classroom: Suggestions for Praxis Modern college classrooms are... more Listening Rhetoric in the Diverse Classroom: Suggestions for Praxis Modern college classrooms are increasingly diverse. We face classes where eighteenyear-olds sit beside grandmothers, native speakers of English sit beside speakers of other languages, and Christians, Jews, and Muslims share classrooms with atheists and agnostics. How do we take such a varied and ideologically differentiated group of pupils and bridge their differences in order to bring them together into a classroom community? Not only is the creation of such a community critical to pedagogical success, but in a larger sense it is critical as a model for the effective functioning of a democratic society. My purpose is to suggest that the concept of listening rhetoric, as it informs classroom practice, has the potential to serve this goal. I teach in Israel, where students come to class with deep cultural, religious, and ideological divides: students who come to my class are often for the first time having an authentic encounter with someone of different religion or ethnicity. At the beginning of the semester, they usually sit in clumps: Arab male students, Arab female students (who sometimes comprise the majority in my classes), secular Jews, religious Jews, a sprinkling of Christians, and students from the FSU. But I have found that through the practice of listening rhetoric, even such extremely diverse groups of students can become a community.
This article explores the way gender resonates in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar through an active s... more This article explores the way gender resonates in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar through an active study of live performance. Combining pedagogy with performance as an interpretive methodology, this research focuses upon using my unique classroom situation, teaching ultra-Orthodox Jewish adolescent females, as a platform for analysis. Performing Julius Caesar in my classroom represents an inversion of early modern all-male performance. The question explored in this study is: what does this reversal illuminate about constructions of gender among ultra-Orthodox adolescents?
Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merc... more Because of its potential for fostering antisemitic stereotypes, in the twentieth century The Merchant of Venice has a history of being subject to censorship in secondary schools in the United States. While in the past it has often been argued that the play can be used to teach tolerance and to fight societal evils such as xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, I argue that this is no longer the case due to the proliferation of performance methods in the classroom, and the resultant emphasis on watching film and stage productions. Because images-particularly film images-carry such strong emotional valence, they have the capacity to subsume other pedagogical aspects of this drama in their emotional power and memorability. I therefore question whether the debate over teaching this play is truly a question of 'censorship', or simply educational choice.
Although performance-based pedagogy has clearly given new life to the study of Shakespeare, with ... more Although performance-based pedagogy has clearly given new life to the study of Shakespeare, with ‘performance’ or ‘active’ approaches becoming increasingly dominant as a method, acquiring the status of the 'proper' way to teach Shakespeare, it is important to examine the limitations of this method. This article will begin by surveying the theoretical basis for performance pedagogy and the spectrum of performance methods available and will then go on to address three issues: limitations of time, deficient student acting, and lack of teacher expertise. The issue of time can be addressed by the cost-benefit analysis of methods, the use of alternative approaches, the incorporation of film, and desk-based performance. Poor acting can be improved through the acting exercises of Cicely Berry. Teachers can compensate for a lack of theatrical expertise by taking courses and studying the materials recommended in the article. Keywords: Performance pedagogy; Shakespeare; pedagogy; performance; active approaches
In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought ... more In order to endow the newborn American state with legitimacy, the founders of the country sought a connection to the ancient Roman republican past. William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has an honoured place in the creation of that American democratic ethos. While performances during the colonial and post-revolutionary periods may have been rare, this play was frequently taught at that time, usually in excerpted format. While Shakespeare's text is ambiguous ideologically, balanced between libertarian and conservative monarchical elements, these excerpts constructed an unabashedly republican drama whose purpose was to advocate for democracy, infusing the patriotic ethos of the republic into American youth and immigrants.
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Keywords: Performance pedagogy; Shakespeare; pedagogy; performance; active approaches
Keywords: Performance pedagogy; Shakespeare; pedagogy; performance; active approaches