[文學/英文教學] 英文聽力訓練教案/NPR news/ 莎士比亞、戲劇、種族主義

Advanced Listening#1 – All the Glitters is not Gold

Program: NPR news

Type: Poadcast

Source: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=752850055

 

Summary

This podcast explores the “racism” in Shakespeare’s play and reevaluates if the texts are universally good for everyone with some role-playing of Shakespeare’s play in school, theater experience and opinion from expert in Shakespeare mainly on “The Merchant of Venice” and other piece of work.

Nowadays, theater education for racial equality with adjustment of certain line and casting in Shakespeare, for example, redesign “The Merchant of Venice” for the purpose of resists Anti-Semitism presented by a theater troupe.

In a more academic discussion, the racial hierarchy is certified and is complicated by Shakespeare scholar of Arizona State University focusing on racial formation. Surprisingly, high level of Anti-Semitism in “The Merchant of Venice,” quoted by the scholar from another study on production and audience, even proved that people are more secured with Anti-Semitism after watching the play. However, there are three ways to fight against embracing those problematic text suggested by the scholar. First, acknowledge that Shakespeare’s play is not universally good. Second, happy, simple ending is not the only kind of ending of a play. Third, pick up the awareness by the first two points and rewrite the play. 

Moving on to the relation of the texts and the people of color, the scholar conducts a situation when a black actor become mentally broke down because of he is a white men with black face. Then, she agrees that it’s important to remind black and brown student about the complicated situation in Shakespeare’s play. Lastly, she thinks that it’s a good start to have a discussion with the audience but the loading for the previous thinking process is much heavier for a kid participating in school production.

Overall, it takes The Merchant of Venice as example and enlarge the discussion of Anti-Semitic into a big picture of how we still cannot fully conquer such racism in a text and what strategy we can take on in nowadays. 

Comparative Question

1.        Why The Merchant of Venice is repeatedly mentioned in this play?

2.        How do people feel after watching The Merchant of Venice around the globe in a study?

3.        What is one of the three ways suggested by the scholar to avoid our bias in theater?

4.        Shakespeare’s work comes with a 500 year tradition study for students in college in order to linger the ideology of canon in nowadays. (T/F)

5.        Name any play of Shakespeare mentioned in this podcast.

 

Answer

1.        It is repeatedly mentioned in this play because it is a classic example of Anti-Semitic and racism.

2.        People feel more secured in Anti-Semitic after watching the play.

3.        (Pick one point or paraphrase the answers) First, acknowledge that Shakespeare’s play is not universally good. Second, happy, simple ending is not the only kind of ending of a play. Third, pick up the awareness by the first two points and rewrite the play. 

4.        F. It is learnt by student since elementary school and does not, but sometimes accidentally, serves as the purpose to linger the ideology of canon in nowadays.

5.        Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello…..

Vocabulary

1.        Embody

l   Meaning: to represent an idea 

l   Example sentence: The piece of dance embodies the struggle of African American female in this industry.

2.        Anti-Semitic

l   Meaning: hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews.

l   Example sentence: Anti-Semitic is still raging in the U.S but people don’t dare to make a joke of African American people. What an ironic political correctness!

3.        Blatant

l   Meaning: very obvious and intentional

l   Example sentence: Beijing government’s blatant lie about promised freedom in Hong Kong disturbs people around the world.

4.        Slur

l   Meaning: to pronounce a word in a unclear way

l   Example sentence: Her speech is slur and I bet she’s drunk. Take her home.

5.        Bigoted (bigot)

l   Meaning: a person who is stubborn and has strong, unchallengeable belief of his own

l   Example: He’s a political bigot so just don’t bother to argue with him. 

6.        Wreak

l   Meaning: to cause something to happen in a bad, violent way

l   Example: I hope the typhoon today doesn’t wreak any crop! I cannot afford higher-priced vegetables. 

7.        Havoc

l   Meaning: confusion and damage

l   Example: The storm wreaked havoc in Indonesia.

8.        Diatribe

l   Meaning: a speech or writing that conveys anger and criticism 

l   Example: HOCC launches into persistence, long diatribe against the illegal violence by police over Hong Kongers and actions to free Hong Kong from the severe situation.  

9.        Epistemology

l   Meaning: the part of philosophy that is about the study of how we know things

l   Example: The word Epistemology is so big that you can say it and pretend you’re super smart.

10.     Dismantle

l   Meaning: separate pieces

l   Example: It is important to dismantle the racialized and sexualized image in a literature piece in your close reading.  

 

Critique

This podcast is not so hard for me to follow because it is made with fragmented interviews, moderate speaking speed, and clear intonation with a professor, a host and several interview by NPR interns. The only thing I could complain about is that there are some advertisement that could just sound like part of this podcast or some minor details that are funny and draw your attention away from the main point or discussion. I really need to be focused to distinguish those materials. 

For the message, I am happy that this podcast involves the issue of casting in theater into their consideration because people just don’t care about it most of the time. As a theatergoer and an exchange student in the U.S., I know that decentralize a canon, blind casting, and rewriting a text that meet up equality are something that we fight on. This discussion could easily become a war of the color or a war of “who’s having a tag of the most minority, then who has the loudest speaking right” but it is a rational and realistic discussion and surprisingly includes how the professor from a working class family need to earn money to support herself before joining in the community of academy and how students in high school will have much more loading with the awareness of dominated racism in Shakespeare’s play. I deeply appreciate that this discussion gets from words to possible actions and the obstacle for those possible actions.