Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE PARADOX
- PART TWO THE APPROPRIATION
- 3 Beginning the appropriation of Shakespeare and the ‘First American Edition’ of his works
- 4 Jacksonian energy – Shakespearean imagery
- 5 Context for appropriation in nineteenth-century America
- 6 The American heroic and ownership of Shakespeare
- 7 Shakespeare as a fulcrum for American literature
- 8 The American Scholar and the authorship controversy
- 9 Last scenes in the final act of appropriation
- Epilogue
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Jacksonian energy – Shakespearean imagery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE PARADOX
- PART TWO THE APPROPRIATION
- 3 Beginning the appropriation of Shakespeare and the ‘First American Edition’ of his works
- 4 Jacksonian energy – Shakespearean imagery
- 5 Context for appropriation in nineteenth-century America
- 6 The American heroic and ownership of Shakespeare
- 7 Shakespeare as a fulcrum for American literature
- 8 The American Scholar and the authorship controversy
- 9 Last scenes in the final act of appropriation
- Epilogue
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Art thou base, common, and popular?
Henry V, Act 4, Scene IAs Americans continued to celebrate their two military victories over England, their western frontier advanced towards the Pacific Ocean. An explosive period of growth energised the population. Therewere newimmigrants, a greater market for manufactured goods, new states, but political power remained largely with the ‘old’ east-coast elite. The ideology of the Revolution survived in the political rhetoric but it was the coming of the Jacksonian era (1830-50) that ensured that a greater proportion of the population began to feel empowered.
While wealth and a sense of nation increased, Shakespeare can be seen to have touched the diverse lives of Americans occupying all strata of society. Lawrence Levine put forward the following reason for this apparent omnipresence:
Shakespeare was popular, first and foremost, because he was integrated into the culture and presented within its context. Nineteenth-century Americans were able to fit Shakespeare into their culture so easily because he seemed to fit – because so many of his values and tastes were, or at least appeared to be, close to their own, and were presented through figures that seemed real and came to matter to the audience.
The shared ‘values and tastes’ suggested here by Levine, key to this chapter, imply that there was an element in Shakespearean imagery that in some way matched the Jacksonian energy of the audience and became part of an expression of their transition to sustainable nationhood.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Shakespeare and the American Nation , pp. 74 - 98Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004