Reply to Is Shakespeare not taught in DCPS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The Bible is foundational for the English literature but not guiding. Shakespeare is both foundational and guiding.[/quote]

Interesting point. I’d say the time frames are at play here too- as the Bible predates Shakespeare by 1500+ years. But The difference is that the Bible was the source of rules people had to live by- so while it’s writing doesn’t resonate the way Shakespearean text do, the Bible holds the very framework many writers explored and pulled apart. Different role in literature. [/quote]

The Bible was referenced through many later works, but you can argue that it was less for its literary value and more for its cultural (religious) role. Shakespeare on the other hand was a lot more prolific, gave us a wide vocabulary, style (poetry, theater), complex character development all this when there wasn’t much literature in the modern sense to precede him. He really influenced the way we use language and the literature we read today, which is why I call him guiding.

Shakespeare is to English what Newton is for sciences, the first to see the world as we understand it today.

To argue against reading Shakespeare in the English class is like asking to remove Newton from Physics lectures.[/quote]

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