Monograf Journal Edebiyat ve İktidar (2014 / 1) | Page 12

The Reconstructed Bard: Chartism and Shakespeare • 13 The Reconstructed Bard: Chartism and Shakespeare ODAK Anthony P. Pennino* T he Chartist Movement of Great Britain (taking its name from the People’s Charter of 1838) stands as arguably the first organized mass working class movement and one of the most ambitious. In order to encourage large-scale change within British society, the Chartists developed a rather complex set of cultural practices with the intent of inculcating members of the urban working classes with the foundational principles of the movement. These practices included the appropriation of Britain’s literary heritage. The Chartists reevaluated a number of British authors through their critical lens, but no one received greater attention than William Shakespeare whose biography and works were positioned within the new social construct. Here, Shakespeare stands as a hero of the working class, as a *Stevens Institute of Technology, Lecturer. [email protected] man with republican sympathies, and for some, anachronistically, as a Leveller. In Marxist terms, this program was pursued to frame British history and culture in terms of an ongoing class conflict and to locate within that conflict certain exemplars who lent their voice and sup port to working class causes. The Chartists lasted only a decade as a viable political force, but the architecture of their programs would ably serve those who followed in working class political and cultural movements. Since this movement in its mission crossed so many disciplinary boundaries, cultural history serves as a valuable means of investigation of the Chartist project, particularly with regard to its cultural practices. Cultural history lends itself to an examination of the public expression of those who are outside of the ruling classes, provides context on how social movements affect society at large, and charts the growth and evolution of human thought (which includes but is not limited to political ideology). The notion of ideology here is a complicated one given the relative newness of the concept in the nineteenth century and given that many in Britain’s elites eschewed the very notion of ideology at the time. In reclaiming the past for themselves, the Chartists hoped to influence contemporary political debate and place their ideology before the people using whatever media – newspapers, parades, speeches, theatrical events -- at their disposal. How then may the Chartist mission be termed ideological? As Thomas Carlyle asks in Chartism, “Or does the Brit- monograf 2014/1