Shakespeare’s King Lear About the ‘Destructive Potential’ of ‘Whiteness’: Globe Theatre Panel.
Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesOne of Shakespeare’s most famous plays really centres around the “destructive potential” of “whiteness”, an academic hosted by the Globe Theatre claimed. King Lear, a five-part tragedy penned by William Shakespeare with the eponymous mythological British king as its protagonist, really revolves around the idea of the “destructive potential” of “whiteness”, an academic has claimed, despite the play seemingly having little to do with race.
The statement was made at just one of a series of “Anti-Racist Shakespeare” seminars hosted by the Globe Theatre in London, which as a reconstruction of Shakespeare’s original playhouse specialises in hosting plays penned by the Bard.
During the seminar dedicated to discussing King Lear, the two guest panellists, Professor Preti Taneja and Associate Professor Urvashi Chakravarty, repeatedly make reference to “whiteness” — a common term within Critical Race Theory (CRT) — within the play, with both academics relating such “whiteness” to colonialism and strategies of “divide and rule”. Breitbart.
