Shakespeare, Truly, “Our Contemporary”: Making Connections Between the Bard and the Present Moments of Crisis

Jan Kott argued in his landmark book, from which the session’s title is drawn, that Shakespeare’s works are not historical artifacts but vital texts, which speak powerfully to the present social and political realities for students to explore.

This session will present strategies to create a series of lessons revolving around speeches drawn from several plays to examine similar themes or “moments of crisis” which reflect and inform social justice challenges we face today. Then, this approach connects those themes and conflicts with contemporary poetry and prose which illuminate Shakespeare’s themes and conflicts, and vice versa. Join this session to workshop a speech from Shakespeare and a companion piece, which will prepare students for a more sustained experience reading one of the Bard’s plays and to recognize his impact on contemporary culture and thought.

As ELA instructors wrestle with which texts and voices to maintain in their curricula, Shakespeare has been an author whose place on the reading list was at one time sacrosanct, never to be eliminated. More recently the status of the Bard's work has come under closer pedagogical scrutiny. Is tackling a play in full or in part worth the time and energy? What are the transferrable skills and discernible appreciation students develop? This approach places Shakespeare in conversation with contemporary works, world events, and human concerns. It also provides students with reading strategies and analytical tools which can be applied to the analysis of a variety of challenging texts.