Reading Response #2

I was fascinated by Sweeney's article on "White Trash" (in fact, I couldn't help but read excerpts of it to my friend)! The references to the Carnival culture and the Northern elitist's who condemn it immediately brought to mind the irony of the middle class intellectual's appreciation for Shakespeare.  When Shakespeare's plays were first performed at London's Globe Theatre in the late 16th/early 17th centuries, the audience that stood around the stage were notorious for their "carnival" behavior.  People drank, spat, yelled at the actors, danced, sang, and (in some accounts) partook in sexual acts during the performances.  Prostitutes lined the bank of the Thames in front of the theatre and pubs and caverns were full of drunk Englishmen and women.  The performances themselves were influenced by the energy of the rowdy audience.  The way these performances have been described to me, they were much like Dionysian festivals, or a "celebration of collected bodies" (Sweeney, 255).  This atmosphere is a far distance from the often stale, tedious Shakespearean performances that can be seen in regional theatres throughout the United States.  Having grown up seeing Shakespeare's plays at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis (the best patron endowed theatre in the United States), I can't imagine the predominantly white, middle class, baby-boomer audience having any appreciation for how the plays were originally performed.  I would watch in frustration as parts of the show that were written to be explicitly sexual were smoothed over in a bland, poetic fashion that had nothing to do with the author's original intention. It is as though (much like Elvis), Shakespeare's works have been assimilated into elitist American culture on their own terms.  I think this assimilation can be seen throughout American culture.  The liberal middle class can accept the gay couple who move in next door and spend their time throwing neighborhood bbqs and landscaping, but resist and condemn the gay culture that thrives in urban centers.  The middle class seems to accept all things that are de-sexualized, be it Elvis, Shakespeare, or homosexuality.  It appears that the middle class's bodily struggle (referred to by Sweeney) has chosen power and discipline as opposed to evasion and liberation.  This can be seen in many aspects of our society.