The English Miscellany

  This new collection reveals that Shakespeare’s plays have always been embroiled in political and cultural debates. From the Elizabethan/Jacobean stage to modern classrooms, his works provoke conversation, challenge conventions, and ignite controversy. Nonetheless, Shakespeare’s central position in the traditional cultural establishment is facing renewed scrutiny as some critics start to question whether his works should still occupy a prime position on the syllabus and the stage. Debates about “woke” ideology—emerging in part out of the earlier “culture wars”—have stimulated renewed interest in the role of various schools of critical enquiry, ranging from feminism and gender to queer theory, postcolonialism and race to cultural materialism, global studies to eco-criticism, social class to social justice. The essays in this new collection provide a forum for more diverse voices and debates, seeking to explore how to engage with modern social and political issues in transformativ...

  "Border Crossings: Foucault, Philosophy and Fiction": my contribution to Finding Philosophers in Global Fiction: Redefining the Philosopher in Multi-cultural Contexts (2024) Eds., Anway Mukhopadhyay, Saptarshi Mallick, Debashree Dattaray. Bloomsbury Publishing " What does Foucault’s philosophy tell us about fiction? What does fiction reveal about Foucault’s philosophy? Debates about Foucault’s ideas typically revolve around disputes about their philosophical veracity, legitimacy, or credibility, with widely divergent critical responses ranging from unqualified admiration to outright hostility. Noting how these reactions in critical discourse verge either on the hagiographic or the hostile, the respectful or savagely satirical, it is argued that Foucault’s writings can helpfully illuminate the taxonomic power dynamics in a range of satirical and humorous texts. Two postmodern novels by A.S. Byatt and Patricia Duncker are also discussed, examining wider idea...

    Includes my chapter in Part II. 9. Border Crossings: Foucault, Philosophy and Fiction (Ian McCormick) Description A cross-cultural study that explores and redefines what philosophy, philosophizing, and philosophers are through the lens of literature. The academic discipline of philosophy may tell us, too rigidly, what a philosopher is or should be; but fictional narration often upholds the core conundrums of humankind in which philosophy germinates. This collection of essays explores whether a study of 'philosophers' at a planetary scale, or at least on a broad cross-cultural spectrum, can decouple philosophy from its academic aspect and lend it a more inclusive domain. Contributors to this volume play with three conceptual poles, making them interact with each other and get modified through this interaction: 'fiction', 'narrative' and 'philosopher'. How do these three terms get semantically modified and broadened in scope when we speak of the figure...

  “ There are over 50,000 deaf children in the UK and Shakespeare is the only named author that all children are required to study by the national curriculum. However, there is a lack of resources for deaf students studying Shakespeare in school.” In this context, Braidwood Trust School for the Deaf (Birmingham, UK) has collaborated with Dr Abigail-Woodall from the University of Birmingham and Tracy Irish from the RSC Theatre. The ‘Signing Shakespeare Project’ involved the creation of online resources and activities to support teachers teaching Shakespeare to Deaf pupils.  On 18 July 2024, this group of students from the Braidwood school performed their adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Rep Theatre, Birmingham UK. This was part of the Signing Shakespeare project, which involved working alongside a professional deaf actor: Mia Ward (Prospero). In this performance, Prospero’s long delivery of the backstory (which can be slightly tedious in some prod...