Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Neither Party Loser

Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance. Ed. Ayanna Thompson. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Whether you're thrilled beyond belief or despondent beyond words at the various outcomes of yesterday's election, you must agree that electing an African-American man to the Presidency of the United States of America is a (or an) historic moment.

Well, that's a bit weak. I suppose that all moments are historic moments—though elections, perhaps, may be a bit more so.

What I meant to say is that, whether I agree or disagree with some or all of his policies, I'm glad that we could elect an African-American to the highest political office in the land.

In 2 Henry IV, the Archbishop of York says this:
A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser. (IV.ii.89-91)
On the point of electing a black man to the presidency, at least, perhaps neither parter is a loser.

To take it into Shakespearean territory, I present the frontispiece image from Colorblind Shakespeare: "The Droeshout engraving of Denzel Washington."

The book itself looks like a very interesting collection of a dozen essays on issues of race in Shakespeare. I have yet, alas, to read the volume—it's been on my shelf for six months now, and the library keeps asking for it back. But soon and very soon I hope to get to it. If I do, you can count on a post or two about it!


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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
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