Réme Bohlin
01/28/2021
Last semester, in the fall of 2020, I had the
opportunity to share an early draft of my dissertation chapter with the Works in Progress Writing Group. The chapter, “The Rhetoric of Ownership in Shakespeare Pedagogy,” is the second chapter in my dissertation which focuses on approaches to teaching Shakespeare.
In “The Rhetoric of Ownership in Shakespeare Pedagogy,” I take as a point of departure Ayanna Thompson and Laura Turchi’s observation that “the rhetoric of ownership is ubiquitous in rationales for the teaching of Shakespeare.”1 I analyze the frequent use of this rhetoric in Shakespeare pedagogy, and ultimately offer a critique. I argue that the rhetoric of ownership often stands as an ambiguous and rarely defined learning objective. What does it mean to “own” Shakespeare? The rhetoric of ownership also, I argue, perpetuates problematic arguments about Shakespeare’s so-called universality.
We had productive discussion in the Works in Progress Writing Group. We talked about the ways that the rhetoric of ownership seems to cross political boundaries, with both liberal and conservative commentators asserting that students should “own” Shakespeare; we noted the unique use of the rhetoric of ownership with Shakespeare (are students asked to “own” Donne, or Milton, or Beaumont and Fletcher?); and finally we discussed other ways to rhetorically acknowledge or encourage student agency in the study of Shakespeare.
I am grateful to the Works in Progress Writing Group for hosting me, and to the faculty and graduate students who thoughtfully read and responded to my work.