Commentary

• The Stranger in Shakespeare

  - Leslie Fiedler, The Stranger in Shakespeare (New York: Stein & Day, 1973)
  Summary from the Publisher: In this provocative book, originally published in 1972, Leslie Fiedler turns his critical eye on what he calls the “borderline figure” in Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Neither hero nor villain, this figure… More

• The New World Savage as Stranger

  - Leslie Fiedler, “The New World Savage as Stranger,” in The Stranger in Shakespeare, 199–253
  Excerpt: If Othello disconcerts by suggesting at its very end a mythological equivalence of Indian and Jew, The Tempest even more disconcertingly begins proposing a similar equivalence of Indian and Africa. Throughout the play, in fact, Shakespeare… More

• Prospero’s Republic: The Politics of Shakespeare’s The Tempest

  - Paul A. Cantor, “Prospero’s Republic: The Politics of Shakespeare’s The Tempest,” in Shakespeare as Political Thinker, eds. Alvis and West, 241–59
  Excerpt: To talk about the politics of Shakespeare’s The Tempest may seem like a boorish intrusion upon the visionary and dreamlike mood of the play. And yet just as such an intrusion is dramatized within the play, if we consider the way in which… More

• Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Tragicomedy and the Philosophic Hero

  - Paul A. Cantor, “Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Tragicomedy and the Philosophic Hero,” in Shakespeare’s Last Plays, eds. Smith and Curtright, 1–15
  Excerpt: Throughout his career Johann Goethe proved himself to be a profound student of Shakespeare and nowhere more so than in the opening scene of the second part of Faust. As Faust lies shattered by his tragic experiences in Part One, a group of spirits… More

• Shakespeare — “For all time”

  - Paul A. Cantor, “Shakespeare—‘For all time’”, Public Interest, Winter 1993, 34-48
  Excerpt: “The content of the curriculum tends to be the focus of contemporary debates on the humanities in college education, as if our only concern should be exactly which books are being taught on our campuses. Many people, for example, are… More