S/LI/127. What does it mean to turn politics into theatre in Shakespeare's drama?

This paper examines Shakespeare's approach to depicting politics. It compares the plays Julius Caesar and King Richard II, highlighting the essential theatricality of political rhetoric in the former (as representation of a democracy), whilst underlining the inherent difficulties in making theatre out of the non-democratic (as represented by the militaristic Richard II). Particular emphasis is placed on the funeral scene in Julius Caesar. The essay illustrates that literature depicting the politics of an 'advanced' society must paradoxically be blatantly theatrical if it is to be realistic. Critical work by Greenblatt and Bakhtin is cited.