ALEX CAMPBELL'S TUMBLELOG

The antipathy widely felt towards Shakespeare was pithily summed up by the comedian and actor Lenny Henry before he took on the role of Othello. To him, the plays were ‘gobbledegook for posh people’; full of ‘funny old words’; unfamiliar ‘stinky language’. This aversion and rejection is often confused with arguments about ‘relevance’ and ‘immediacy’, but these arguments are distracting and have little to do with the writer or his plays. Indeed, to decide that Shakespeare is ‘not right’ on the grounds of relevance, or anything else, is to begin to exercise a kind of cultural apartheid. Whether we like it or not, knowledge of Shakespeare, a familiarity with his work, is an important cultural (and class) signifier. If the study of Shakespeare is eliminated on the grounds of difficulty, relevance, or anything else, then whole areas of our culture become inaccessible. Why is Shakespeare so important? Do we have a “duty” to teach children Shakespeare’s works? - School Gate - Times Online (via fluffynotes)