On October 10, 2016, New Yorker talks about “putting Marx back” in his nineteenth century surroundings.” (Louis Menand, “Karl Marx, Yesterday and Today”)
On October 17, 2016, New Yorker talks about “modernizing” Shakespeare into the twenty-first century. (Adam Gopnik, “Why Rewrite Shakespeare?”)
Menand critiques two recent books arguing to put Marx back in his context, and Gopinik critiques current adaptions of several Shakespearean plays. While the two essays seem to be addressing movements towards different directions, both discuss the same question:
What is our relationship with works of the past and their authors, and how should we treat them?
1. Where to Place Marx and Shakespeare
Putting Marx back to the nineteenth century:
Menand first lays out the main arguments Marx claims in “The Communist Manifesto,” from the wealth stemming from modern industry, to the worker revolution he predicts the unequal distribution of such wealth would trigger. He then brings up two recent books that “are committed to returning [Marx] to his own century,” written by Jonathan Sperber and Gareth Stedman Jones respectively.
Menand argues that such Historizing as “correcting for the tendency to presentize the past” is worthy. As Jonathan Sperber insists, “Marx is more a figure of the past than a prophet of the present.” Many of his arguments are directed against “thinkers now obscure” and “interpretations of events largely forgotten.” That is, much of Marx’s fights are over parochial stakes rooted in his time, and knowing this allows us to correct our tendency of wrongly assigning the fights meanings grander than they have.
Nonetheless, Menand stresses Marx’s relevance even today: “‘The Communist Manifesto’ is like a bomb about to go off in your hand.’” In his words, “You can put Marx back into the nineteenth century, but you cannot keep him there.” Most importantly, Marx changes how people think in at least the following ways. First, he suggests that we use philosophy not only to interpret the world, but also to change it. Second, he concurs that we as humans naturally create ideologies to make sense of the world, but reminds us that they are human inventions, but not “the way things are,” nor are they inevitable. Third, he provides a model of class struggle that applies even to today’s social relations, although not strictly in his bourgeoisie- proletariat divide.
Modernizing Shakespeare to the twenty-first century:
Gopnik goes through the recent adaptions of Shakespeare: “Merchant of Venice” is adapted into “Shylock is My Name,” where the Venice merchant becomes an art collector Simon Strulovitch, and the core conflict on the pound of flesh becomes his insistence on circumcising his soon-to-be son-in-law. “The Taming of the Shrew” is adapted into “Vinegar Girl,” where Kate, a socially awkward woman “becomes more herself by being made to engage with someone as odd as she is.” “Hamlet” is reproduced in twenty-first century context, too, with Hamlet telling the story as a fetus from Gertrude’s womb. In short, they keep the “twists” of the original plays, from anti-Semitism to the subjugation of women to art and isolation, but weave them into different tales.
Gopnik sees merit in such adaptions. He believes that the “twists” are closer to the essence of Shakespearean plays than the “story content,” just as the music is closer to the essence of “Cosi Fan Tutte” than the plot. That is, Gopnik acknowledges that the themes debated in Shakespeare’s plays are still debated today.
However, Gopnik also points out the un-Shakespearean nature of such adaptions. That is, we think in a different way from Shakespeare, and the adaptions “impose a value system that [Shakespeare] did not share.” “Shakespeare believed in fate, order, and forgiveness;” he argues, “we believe in history, justice, and compassion.” While Anne Tyler, the novelist who adapted “The Taming of the Shrew” gives details of Kate’s inner world to make her actions plausible, just as other modern novelists would explain why evil people are evil by looking into their “trauma and history,” Shakespeare would attribute the wickedness to their “nature and destiny.”
2. Similar Yet Different: Authors from the Past and Us
Menand and Gopnik both discuss the differences and similarities the authors of past works have with us, although in reversed order. By noting such differences and similarities, they acknowledge the complexity and tension created by the co-existing pair.
On the one hand, we are fundamentally different from the past authors, and our times different from theirs, because nothing can be “unhappened,” and no word can be “unsaid.” Time flows in one direction, and events and literatures necessarily take place between the authors and us. As a result, we would act differently: In our body today there are struggles of our ancestors, and such memories shape the way we act. Having witnessed American Independence and French Revolution, while one can still value “order,” like Shakespeare did, he or she can hardly hold it on the unquestionable pedestal. At the same time, we would also think differently: Words carry thoughts, and more importantly, ways of thinking, and thus we are influenced by literatures that did not influence the authors in the past- including their own works. When looking at current politics, it is inevitable to have Marx sitting in the back of our minds: While the bourgeoisie- proletariat division seems to be alleviated by access to votes, new division such as the immigrants versus natives and the resourced versus the underprivileged can easily fit into the same pattern.
On the other hand, we are similar to them, and our time similar to theirs. We still have the instinct to form ideologies to explain the inexplicable world as Marx has observed, and we still struggle to analyze the relationship between identity and ethnicity, a question raised in “The Merchant of Venice.” In our time, “class wars” still take place, and women are not yet free from the oppressions that chained Kate.
3. What Should We Do: Put Marx back to His Time, But Not Keep Him There
Given the juxtaposition of the differences and similarities, how should we treat authors from the past and their works? I believe the quote from Menand summarizes an advisable attitude: We should put Marx back to his time, but do not keep him there. That is, we should actively learn from their work, knowing that one’s time influences one’s ideas. For example, we should closely study the Ancient Greek classics, but bear in mind that to accuse Greeks of moral corruption on the basis of slavery is at best oversimplification.
Putting authors back to their contexts not only removes illusions and misunderstandings about their works, as Sperber and Stedman Jones argue, but also strips away the basis of our self-righteousness: Since we too are in our particular context just as they are in theirs, we are in no position to impose our assumptions and standards on them, but should first critique such assumptions and standards, parsing our own context.
The critique of our own context helps us to understand ourselves better- we can now find what in us might be intrinsic human nature by seeking what has not changed, and analyze what are shaped by history of past events and literature, and how they are so shaped. That is, by recognizing contexts of past works, we inquire into our nature.
With the inquiry into human nature, we would also be able to see the world we essentially construct with our words more clearly- just like philosophers who disillusion us by putting ideologies back to their place as social constructs, by acknowledging ourselves as the source of concepts, we challenge the status quo as not necessarily inevitable, and not necessarily justified.
The similarities between ourselves and our ancestors are crucial to such learning: The fact that while we give different answers from our ancestors, we are after the same questions suggests that we can compare and contrast ourselves with them, and that we would be justified to attribute our differences to history because we are not comparing two essentially difference species.
826 Comments
I liked the twist/flip at the end—”Since we too are in our particular context just as they are in theirs, we are in no position to impose our assumptions and standards on them, but should first critique such assumptions and standards, parsing our own context.” I wasn’t expecting such a turn around and, therefore, I think this observation hit me particularly strongly. I think that it is such an interesting idea to use investigations into the past as a way to remember to investigate the present, to become more fully aware of our own context.
You did a nice job comparing the two articles, but, most importantly, you effectively “broadened” the argument, making it applicable to more than just these two articles. Plus, I enjoyed the comparison because it helped me understand the article on Marx (which I had read previously) in a new way. Finally, the conclusion had a lovely poetic nature to it, which concluded the post nicely.
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This is a fantastic analysis! The ending really packs a punch.
Strengths of the Analysis:
Powerful Conclusion: You highlight the “twist/flip at the end” as particularly impactful. You effectively convey how the unexpected turn of phrase (“critique our own context”) resonated with you. This is a great way to emphasize the strength of the concluding statement.
Broadening the Scope: You commend the writer for “broadening the argument” beyond the two specific articles. This highlights how the analysis offers insights with wider applicability.
Enriched Understanding: You mention how the comparison between the articles helped you understand the Marx article in a “new way”. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the analysis in sparking new perspectives.
Poetic Conclusion: You appreciate the “lovely poetic nature” of the conclusion, adding to the overall appeal of the writing.
Overall, your comment effectively highlights the strengths of the analysis. You point out the impactful conclusion, the successful broadening of the argument, and the enriching effect it has on the understanding of the referenced articles. It’s clear you found the analysis insightful and thought-provoking.
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I loved the way you organized this piece. It’s clear from the beginning what question you are trying to answer and how you plan on going about it. I really appreciated the addition of your own observations – it strengthens your argument to see you actively engaging with the material you examine. I wonder what this piece would look like without the strict divisions? Could the critiques and analyses of the two essays weave into one another, allowing you to compare them more directly? Overall, amazing work!
Anna,
A fascinating exploration of the stakes of thinking historically for cultural criticism. Your interpretation made me think of the notion of negative capability as outlined by the poet John Keats. His idea was that an ideal orientation to the world was to be able to hold contradictions in mind at the same time without reducing them to relativistic “anything goes” attitudes. As applied to history, your development of Gopnik and Menand’s own meditations on how we handle theories and literature from the past seems to pursue this tactic: we need to exercise negative capability, at once placing these works in a past historical context *and* bringing them to bear on our own moment historically. Only by doing both at the same time can we do honor to their simultaneous relevance and incongruence with present times. And then…there is always the issue of the future and how we relate past and present to the future…that becomes another topic perhaps since both Marx and Shakespeare were each quite curious about the predicative qualities of theories, ideas, or (for Shakespeare) portents.
I agree with Professor Kramer that there is a fascinating paradox at play in these critiques (and your meta-critique). Still, I wonder if it is possible through the contextualizing/updating power of criticism to glean only what is useful from past thinkers? In other words, these new Shakespeare adaptations themselves may not draw perfect lines between the past and present, but could the critique of those adaptations do justice to both the past and present in a way that the works alone cannot? It is an interesting thought to consider critics to be your torchbearers lighting the way to “the future both to see more clearly and make it better.” Or maybe I have just been thinking about criticism for too long now and am giving them too much credit!
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