When I visited Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford upon Avon for the fourth time one rainy day this November, I observed a few interesting things. The ambience of the place was relatively calm and devoid of any fanfare to commemorate his 400th anniversary in comparison to my previous visit to the place in 1988. Back then, the Cambridge literary seminar had taken us there to watch one of Shakespeare’s plays. On the cool unrepaired paths and creaking staircase of the house where Shakespeare was born, confusions about what to see and how to go about pervaded the atmosphere. And the place is increasingly becoming more of a tourist centre.

Upstairs, two big photographs of two popular celebrities, a woman and a man, put in the very sanctuary surprised me. I asked what they were doing there. A lady said they were famous people who had visited this place. I asked half in jest, “Would you also put my picture here because I have taught Shakespeare for 44 years in a very far place from here?” One senior person, apparently an academic who was listening to my conversation, supported my views. But my question carried an important meaning. Shakespeare is no longer defined only by his native space or institution that claims authority on him. The ‘mystery’ and ‘perennial fire’ is all-pervasive and this is visible in the interpretations of Shakespeare’s works by the people around the world since the last 400 years.

Shakespearean studies

As a teacher of English literature at Tribhuvan University (TU) in Nepal, I have a played role along with other colleagues and students in redrawing the boundaries of the English literature studies. But Shakespeare has always remained at the centre notwithstanding the theory-savvy methodological and heuristic changes that influenced the studies of his plays and poetry. As theories related to modernism, Marxism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, gender (that includes queer theory, race, cultural studies), third worldism, orientalism, diaspora were used to interpret the major literary texts, Shakespeare’s plays too were read and interpreted by using one or several of these ‘isms’. Doublespeak became the primary mantra of Shakespearean studies not only in our Department at the TU but everywhere else too where the new modes of studies were used as critical tools. I have seen Shakespeare take different avatars and have become a party to that in some ways. A couple of observations strike me with regard to such shifts.

British Marxist critic Terry Eagleton made the anachronistic remark in his Oxford book William Shakespeare (1986)—we cannot read Shakespeare “without feeling that he was almost certainly familiar with the writings of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein and Derrida”. Critics stretch it further and say that Shakespeare was a big house, an originary of all the theories that are discussed today. George Richard Wilson Knight in his famous Shakespearean classic literary oeuvre The Wheel of Fire (1930) sees Shakespeare’s creative strength “as near and yet as far, as that of the sun, and like the sun it burns while generations pass”. As a literary person and a writer of plays, I find no other remarks as powerful as these words that speak of Shakespeare’s perpetual creative strength. Knight saw how even after generations, Shakespeare has always remained relevant.

Shakespeare today

Balakrishna Sama, the doyen of modern Nepali drama who inspired me to write plays said of Shakespeare as an eternal source of creative strength. As a Nepali literary writer, I also find Shakespeare to be the best example of a literary persona and mention his name every time there is a need to cite the example of a great writer. In the past decades, some Nepali literary writers including the great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota translated some of Shakespeare’s plays. Since they were translated only for reading purposes, reproducing them on stage were not easy. When I was asked by the British Council to find a Nepali translation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet—to perform the play during the Nepal visit of a Globe Theatre group who perform Hamlet—I realised nobody had translated and published that play in Nepali. The moral of all these discussions is that Shakespeare is used in Nepal as a subject of academic studies, and barring a few exceptions, his plays were not staged. As a playwright, I have also realised that Shakespeare has always remained a subject to be taught at the university for me.    

When I received the following words in an email from the British Council, Kathmandu I felt that after all, people remembering Shakespeare for whatever reason  is in itself an encouraging matter. The text says, “2016 will mark 400 years since Shakespeare’s death. It is an amazing moment to celebrate his genius and the inspiration he has given to billions of people through the ages. We want to use the power of Shakespeare’s anniversary to give real help to children with limited access to education.”

The programme is apparently supported by “the British Government, the British Council, the GREAT Britain campaign and leading international development charity Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO)”. They want to use the commemoration to create awareness about education.

But the important question is: how do we commemorate the 400-year anniversary of Shakespeare? The English departments in South Asia have been teaching Shakespeare’s plays for nearly 120 years to put it roughly. The purpose was educational. Using Shakespeare for educational purpose demands answers to these following questions. Do we want to use his plays and the verse for teaching creative writing? Do we want to teach his plays for improving children’s English? One thing is clear; Shakespearean language cannot be taught for teaching English. From my own experience in literary teaching and in general, I can say that drawing students’ attention to the eternal creative energy and the sun that burns eternally, and also showing how Shakespeare’s writings are the sources of theories and aesthetic enrichment. Teachers’ role in selection and teaching is very important on both scores because teaching Shakespeare requires a proper sense of creativity and pedagogy.