Shakespeare and the Reactionary Mind: Counterrevolution, Fascism, Militarism
at Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare Aug 31 2024

Conservatives have always tended to claim Shakespeare as one of theirown. In the 1950s, E. M. W. Tillyard developed the influential thesis thatShakespeare’s plays uphold the traditional social hierarchies and suggestthat these hierarchies are embedded in nature. Ulysses’ speech on “degree”in ‘Troilus and Cressida’ serves as one of the key witnesses in thiscontext. Since Tillyard’s time, scholars have persistently pointed outelements of Shakespeare’s plays that do not fit this assumption: theactions on stage persistently seem to contradict and subvert the nobleproclamations of Ulysses and his peers. In the histories and tragedies,the persons on top of the hierarchy mostly seem to end up there by acombination of luck, political manipulation and, first and foremost, theeffective use of violence, rather than by any apparent inborn excellence.Accordingly, Shakespeare’s plays represent a volatile social order inwhich communal life unfolds as perpetual warfare between interest groups –sometimes open, sometimes covert. With Corey Robin and others, one mightventure the hypothesis that this apparent discrepancy between words anddeeds delineates a symptomatic ambivalence that characterizes thereactionary worldview: while reactionaries claim to be conservative, theirenforcement of traditional hierarchies often takes on the form of aviolent interruption of these very traditions. In the name of nature andof “real life”, they voice unprecedented demands that those who aredestined to rule may finally be allowed to rule as they must and to keeptheir inferiors in the subjugated position they deserve. The most extremeform these demands can take is that of fascism, a militant movement ofrevolutionary conservatism that, according to Hannah Arendt, has theinherent tendency to destroy everything it ostensibly holds sacred (suchas the family, the state and the nation). Shakespeare’s plays (first andforemost, ‘Coriolanus’, ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘King Lear’ and ‘Hamlet’) havebeen used to explore this ambivalence, by reactionaries and fascists aswell as by their opponents. This one-day symposium aims to investigatethis complex relationship.

Provisional programme:

10:00 John Gillies (University of Essex): Fascism and the First Plebeian Secession in Shakespeare

10:45: Coffee/tea break

11:15 Amy Lidster (Jesus College, Oxford): “A Very Amiable Monster”: Challenging and Mobilizing Militarism in ‘Henry V’

12:00: Coffee/tea break

12:30 Björn Quiring (Trinity College Dublin): The Absorbing Theatre of Holy War in ‘Henry V’

1:15: Lunch break

3:00 Jennifer Rust ( Saint Louis University): Acclamation and Election: The Political Force of Obviousness in ‘Coriolanus’ (Online)

3:45: Coffee/tea break

4:15 Richard Ashby (King’s College London): Shylock and the Resentments of Jean Améry

5:00: Roundtable

6:00: End

Organised by Shakespeare in Philosophy and Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare.

Ticket are £10 (+booking fee). Tickets include refreshments. Online tickets also available.

Book at: https://shakespearereactionarymind.eventbrite.co.uk

Getting there: https://www.garrickstemple.org.uk/finding-us/

All proceeds go to the Temple.