Stream Dr David McInnis' session at the 2021 Bell Shakespeare National Teacher Conference with the Teacher Membership.
Runtime: 60 mins
Whenever we teach Shakespeare, there are more than two parties involved: between Shakespeare and our students there is a textual editor, whose largely invisible work is often overlooked in the classroom. Along with recent trends in pedagogy that use identity politics and students' lived experiences to empower students to develop their own unique and valid responses to Shakespeare, we might think further about the fundamental instability of Shakespeare's texts as we've received them, and pause to examine the ways that a good editor brings Shakespeare's plays to life. An editor -- like a good director or actor -- offers an interpretation of the text. In this session, we'll attempt to de-centre the author from any privileged position he might hold, and by examining the complex (often messy, sometimes arbitrary) ways by which a play-text has been transmitted (from playwright, through theatres, early printings, and later editions) to us in the present, explore ways we might encourage students to value a play-text for its potential rather than regarding it as fixed and final.
