The Myth of Shakespearean Authenticity: Neoliberalism and Humanistic Shakespeare

Abstract

The chapter explores the ways in which nominally subversive performances of Shakespeare negotiate the complex terrain of twenty-first-century North-American culture, frequently subverting its core messages. As a case study, Kostihova analyzes the ways in which the second season of Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows (2003–06) ostensibly resists neoliberal market consumerism, only to come to undermine its own message through an inexorable endorsement of social neoconservatism, thus nullifying its nominal commitment to using Shakespeare as a restorer of humanist critical thinking and individualism.

This work is an extension of two combined presentations. The work on Macbeth in its early stages was presented as a contribution to the “Staging Shakespeare Myths” seminar at the Shakespeare and Myth conference organized by the European Shakespeare Research Association (ESRA) in June 2013. The section on Romeo and Juliet was first presented at an annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association in 2012. Many thanks to colleagues, both at these meetings and at my home institution (Hamline University), who asked incisive questions and provided the necessary feedback that helped to move the project toward its current iteration.