“Woke’s Shakespeare Purge: A Revolt Against Western Reason.” By James Reed
The American Thinker article by Eric Utter
asserts that the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, a leading institution dedicated to preserving the legacy of William Shakespeare, has embarked on a mission to "decolonise" its collections, effectively undermining the Bard's stature as a cultural icon. This move is framed as part of a broader Leftist revolt against Western heritage, with Shakespeare cast as a symbol of British—and by extension, Western—cultural dominance.
Utter highlights a 2022 research project between the Trust and Dr. Helen Hopkins from the University of Birmingham, which concluded that Shakespeare's "universal genius" has been wielded to promote "white European supremacy." The article quotes the project's claim that celebrating Shakespeare's timeless insights into power, love, and tragedy inflicts "epistemic violence"—a term Utter derides as nonsensical Leftist jargon implying emotional harm to progressive sensibilities. The Trust, once a guardian of Shakespeare's legacy, is now accused of exposing the "evil" in his work, aligning with a "decolonising" agenda that seeks to strip away Western perspectives.
The piece positions this as a betrayal of Shakespeare's universality—his ability to transcend time and place through comedies, histories, and tragedies that resonate globally. Instead, the Trust's stance is seen as bowing to a narrative that ties his genius to British colonialism, slavery, and industrial abuses, ignoring the historical context where such practices were universal, not uniquely British. Utter contrasts Britain's flaws (slavery, colonialism) with its virtues—its role in abolishing slavery and improving labour conditions—arguing that Shakespeare embodies the latter, not the former.
This attack is framed as a microcosm of the cultural wars, where the Left seeks to dismantle Western icons under the guise of inclusion. Utter suggests it's a step toward "national suicide," urging America to reconsider alliances like NATO with a Europe that's "deconstructing" its heritage. The Trust's shift is portrayed as a capitulation to woke ideology, rejecting Shakespeare's "to be" in favour of "not to be."
The "woke" attack on Shakespeare, as outlined, fits a pattern in the cultural wars—a Leftist revolt against the West's foundations.
Shakespeare's works—Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear—are pillars of Western canon, embodying reason, individualism, and human complexity. The Left, per this critique, sees these as threats to its collectivist, identity-driven worldview. The Trust's "decolonising" labels his universality as a tool of "white supremacy," conflating artistic merit with historical sins. It's not about Shakespeare's plays (set in England or not), but what he represents: a Western intellectual tradition the Left seeks to topple.
This is war by revisionism. The cultural wars pit tradition against progressivism, with Shakespeare as a battleground. The Left's "epistemic violence" recasts admiration as harm, a tactic to guilt-trip custodians like the Trust into self-censorship. It's a revolt against the West's narrative of progress (Britain's abolitionism, industrial reform) by fixating on its flaws (colonialism, slavery), ignoring their global ubiquity, as Utter notes.
Yet here, the Left sacrifices cultural fuel for woke purity. Shakespeare's sidelining mirrors renewables' failure: both can't sustain modern demands—AI or identity politics—without stable roots.
This isn't just about Shakespeare—it's the West's soul on trial. The Left's attack, via the Trust, is a salvo to "deconstruct" pride in heritage, leaving a vacuum for new dogmas of the left. They are attempting to destroy the West, to remake it in their own horrible images.
Comments