Failing with Shakespeare: Political Pedagogy in Trump’s America

Abstract

Amidst the perils and rewards of teaching Shakespeare during a U.S. presidential election year, Steve Mentz demonstrates how good Shakespeare is to think with during times of crisis and failure. This chapter proposes new pedagogical implications for the old story of Shakespeare’s dramatic ambivalence: both by connecting the current political situation of the U.S. to critical moments in the past, and by exploring the range of available ethical responses to the experience of uncertainty, failure, and defeat. After all, as Mentz notes, “Politics is always violent and theatrical,” making a course structured around analysis of live theatrical productions particularly generative in the current climate. Mentz also unflinchingly addresses an experience so many of us have had of feeling like we are “failing,” and guides teacher-scholars toward an adaptive methodology that makes room for our own sense of disorientation and frustration.