The universal law of Shakespitation: Pushing and pulling against Shakespearean gravitas

Abstract

Despite a growing awareness that positivism is not an ideal epistemological approach and that even in circumstances where it is useful, it is always partially illusory, the notion of refusing the idea of inherent worth in an author of Shakespeare's cultural mass often leads to scholarly paroxysms. The only aspects of Shakespeare that are truly inherent to Shakespeare are his role as a tool for colonialism and white supremacy. However, using Shakespeare as a curricular tool to teach this history of violence, creation of meaning through art, and conflicting representations of humanity leads to clutched pearls and white supremacist ideologies coded as arguments for timeless values and transcendental humanity. One role of antifandom is to critique and push back against this authorship reification, and engaging in this conversation with antifandom is necessary not only for the future scholarship of Shakespeare but also for the future relevance of Shakespeare to the world.