In this conversation we take up Shakespeare’s nearly infinite capacity to educate liberally all who encounter his works in deep and sustained ways. We also consider how Shakespeare liberally educates us in ways that complement how Dante teaches us. With particular attention to As You Like It, we examine how play—the play of supposition and the play of analogy—can be transferred to the classroom by the best teachers.  Along the way, we consider the contributions to this topic made by Pieper, Huizinga, Gadamer, Sister Miriam Joseph, and Altman.

Links of Potential Interest:

John Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture

Josef Pieper, Leisure the Basis of Culture

Hans Georg Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays

Sister Miriam Joseph, Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language

Joel Altman, The Tudor Play of Mind: Rhetorical Inquiry and the Development of Elizabethan Drama