{"id":18934,"date":"2024-03-18T11:53:36","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T18:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=18934"},"modified":"2024-03-18T11:55:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T18:55:03","slug":"scholars-explain-william-shakespeare-popularity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/scholars-explain-william-shakespeare-popularity\/","title":{"rendered":"William Shakespeare\u2019s claim to fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                          \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/DD_Bard_Unbound_Recap_Top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/DD_Bard_Unbound_Recap_Top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/DD_Bard_Unbound_Recap_Top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/DD_Bard_Unbound_Recap_Top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Shakespeare, despite his long-standing popularity, remains an enigma. (Composite: Letty Avila; Image source: Marc Merhej; Wikimedia Commons; iStock.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=arts-and-culture\">Arts and Culture<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>William Shakespeare\u2019s claim to fame<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Scholars explore the perennially popular playwright and the reasons behind his staying power.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">March 18, 2024<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 4.0350274 1.058837 1.0874543 2.51831502 1.6884158 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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>At this moment, there is likely a William Shakespeare play on stage somewhere around the world. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/ng-interactive\/2016\/apr\/22\/william-shakespeares-legacy-analysed#:~:text=There%20were%20an%20average%20of,to%20the%20World%20Shakespeare%20Bibliography.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Shakespeare Bibliography estimates<\/a>\u00a0that more than 400 productions of his work were put on each year between 1959 and 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The English playwright is one of the most popular dramatists of all time, but he remains a fairly enigmatic figure. \u201cThe verifiable facts of Shakespeare\u2019s life can be written on a postcard and still leave room for an address and a postage stamp,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.provost.usc.edu\/about\/leadership-team\/andrew-mcconnell-stott\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Stott<\/a>, professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/engl\/\">English<\/a> at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and USC\u2019s vice provost for academic programs and dean of the graduate school.<\/p>\n<p>Stott and scholars from USC Dornsife sat down for a <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/dornsife-alumni\/lifelong-learning\/\">Dornsife Dialogue<\/a> to shed light on Shakespeare\u2019s life, work and the reasons for his enduring legacy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Bard Unbound\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0vMAb8Ve570?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h2>Who was William Shakespeare?<\/h2>\n<p>Information about Shakespeare\u2019s personal life is limited. We know definitively that he was baptized, married and owned properties in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, but little else can be verified (including his date of birth.)<\/p>\n<p>This scarcity of records has helped fuel theories that his plays were actually written by a different person, such as his contemporary and fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, the philosopher Francis Bacon or courtier Edward de Vere. It\u2019s an idea that has inspired <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anonymous_(film)#:~:text=Anonymous%20is%20a%202011%20period,of%20William%20Shakespeare's%20plays.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">films<\/a> and heated discussions, even if most scholars don\u2019t find these arguments credible.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/bruce-smith\/\">Bruce Smith<\/a>, Professor of English Emeritus, reminds the curious that images of all the legal papers signed by Shakespeare, and all of the documents of his era that mention him, can be viewed online at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.folger.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Folger Shakespeare Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/ian-smith\/\">Ian Smith<\/a>, professor of English, the identity of Shakespeare shouldn\u2019t necessarily be the main focus. \u201cI don\u2019t care that much about that question because, for me, the texts are what matters,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h2>What would seeing a Shakespeare play during his time have been like?<\/h2>\n<p>The Globe Theatre in London, where many of his plays were first produced, opened to the sky. This would have given productions a sound dynamic similar to that of modern sports stadiums. The actors were all men and young boys, a theatrical tradition dating back to Ancient Greece. Bookkeeping records from sister companies that staged at The Globe indicate that costumes were likely made with lavish materials, some even donated by nobility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI imagine a very intense sound experience, but also a very intense visual experience in which the dominant colors of the costumes were red, white and black with gold trim,\u201d says Bruce Smith, who authored <em><a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/book\/10.1002\/9781444317954\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phenomenal Shakespeare<\/a><\/em> (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), which looks at how viewers experienced Shakespeare\u2019s plays physically, not just in the mind.<\/p>\n<div id=\"buzzsprout-player-14609468\"><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/2126441\/14609468-the-bard-unbound-shakespeare-revisited.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-14609468&#038;player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Find a transcript of this audio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/2126441\/14609468\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> under the transcript tab.<\/p>\n<h2>Why are Shakespeare plays so popular?<\/h2>\n<p>Shakespeare touched on a broad range of universal themes, from love and romance to betrayal and revenge. This made his works pliable enough to be molded into all sorts of unique settings, like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Throne_of_Blood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">feudal Japan<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/shakespearebehindbars.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prison<\/a>, keeping them eternally fresh for audiences.<\/p>\n<p>He also lived in a time of heightened global movement, in which England was increasingly encountering new cultures from distant lands. It bares similarity to our present-day experiences of globalization and escalating immigration. This has made plays like <em>Othello<\/em> and <em>Titus Andronicus<\/em> popular dramatic frameworks in which acting companies can examine identity, cultural collisions and race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose plays continue to be relevant for us in ways that are not just thematic, as people might often say, but important for us because they speak to the crucial and urgent moment of our lives today,\u201d says Ian Smith, whose book <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/books\/black-shakespeare\/9CDD8943533997718BDA230CF8457A93\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Black Shakespeare<\/a><\/em> (Cambridge University Press, 2022) analyzes the racial dynamics of Shakespeare\u2019s texts and legacy.<\/p>\n<h2>What first got our scholars interested in Shakespeare?<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt was actually reading <em>Julius Caesar<\/em> as a senior at Central High School in Jackson, Miss. It was a speech by Portia, in which she\u2019s in a garden and has a monologue that very beautifully evokes the night. So, it was actually Shakespeare\u2019s language that initially drew me in,\u201d says Bruce Smith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe play that first excited me would have been <em>King Lear<\/em>, which I believe I read in high school,\u201d says Ian Smith. \u201cI just found it very powerful and moving, so much so that for many years I would not teach the play because I thought it was just so powerful and in, some ways, so personal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scholars explore the perennially popular playwright and the reasons behind his staying power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":18937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,10],"tags":[74,71,75,141],"class_list":["post-18934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-faculty","tag-english","tag-history","tag-humanities","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>William Shakespeare\u2019s claim to fame<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scholars explore the perennially popular playwright William Shakespeare and the reasons behind his staying power\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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