The Great Debate

The violent separation of the United States from Britain was not just a military and political victory. As the 1800s began, many Americans wanted their new country to be truly independent, with its own culture and literature. But what would that mean for Shakespeare in America?

For most of the nineteenth century, American thinkers wavered on his proper role. Some called Shakespeare’s works undemocratic or simply irrelevant, hoping instead for new American voices. Others saw Shakespeare as one of the foundations of American literature and thought.

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