Shakespeare was a keen and discerning reader who was mocked by writers who, unlike him, had been to university鈥攕o it鈥檚 not surprising that his portrait of scholarly life is critical. As Sean Keilen shows in this engaging book, Shakespeare鈥檚 scholars lack humility, shun wisdom, underestimate people who are not scholars, and, by keeping aloof from society, fail to see themselves clearly. In examining Shakespeare鈥檚 scholars, Keilen finds parallels in the modern academy.
Keilen examines three plays with scholars as protagonists, tracing these characters鈥� arduous paths to self-knowledge and meaningful connection with others. In Love鈥檚 Labor鈥檚 Lost, four noblemen, seeking fame for knowledge and virtue, establish an academy鈥攂ut the real purpose of their studies is to exclude women, scorn men of inferior standing, and treat each other with hostility. In Hamlet, the prodigiously intelligent Prince of Denmark retreats to the solitude of his own thoughts, with unfortunate results. And in The Tempest, Prospero abandons his duty to others for the rapture of secret studies, a choice that leads him to seek the false consolation of self-protective bitterness. In each play, Keilen finds important lessons about humility, wisdom, and self-knowledge. Inspired by these, he argues for a new approach to teaching literature鈥攐ne that views literary education not as an esoteric discipline but as the renewal of an intellectual heritage all readers hold in common.
Sean Keilen is professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he also directs Shakespeare Workshop, a research center that promotes Shakespeare scholarship, community engagement, and theatrical performance. He is author of Vulgar Eloquence: On the Renaissance Invention of English Literature and the coeditor of Shakespeare: The Critical Complex and The Routledge Research Companion to Shakespeare and Classical Literature. He is also head of dramaturgy at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, a longstanding professional theater company.
"This elegant, brief book explores the figure of the scholar in selected Shakespeare plays to argue that those plays can teach us how to know ourselves..... A bracingly honest study of Shakespeare’s scholar-heroes designed to get the modern scholar back into public life."鈥�Kirkus Reviews
“This perfectly marvelous little book combines two of my favorite genres. It is at once a humanist manifesto—a very moving reflection on the humanities and how we might shepherd them into the future—and a series of remarkable readings of Shakespeare, the kind that renew and reorient one's connection to the plays. Who knew Shakespeare had such timely things to say about the uses and abuses of education? Shakespeare’s Scholars invites us to reflect on the wisdom and folly of academies, then and now—to reflect, and perhaps to amend.”—Jennifer Bryan, author of Looking Inward: Devotional Reading and the Private Self in Late Medieval England
“Sean Keilen’s Shakespearian lessons for scholars are, as he says, lessons for students, and we are all students. But they are also wise and witty lessons for professionals: not just for schoolmasters, princes, and dukes, but for anyone who has ever let their job get the better of their life, who has ever let the dignity of an office eclipse the dignity of work.”—Jeff Dolven, author of Senses of Style: Poetry before Interpretation
“This book changed the way I think about Shakespeare’s scholars and my vocation as a critic and teacher. Read it if you want to find your way towards reading Shakespeare for wisdom, with Berowne, Rosalind, Hamlet, Horatio, Marina, and Prospero by your side. What does Shakespeare teach readers and audiences about learning, listening, and living well? This question is at the heart of Shakespeare’s Scholars, a brilliant, beautiful meditation on the aspirations and failures of literary education in Shakespeare's plays and in our classrooms and libraries today.”—Julia Reinhard Lupton, author of Thinking with Shakespeare: Essays on Politics and Life
