Monograf Journal Edebiyat ve İktidar (2014 / 1) | Page 32

ODAK

32 • Anthony P. Pennino
tional relations reciprocally shape a dominant imperial culture
at home, and how imperial relations are enacted and contested within the nation” (14). Kaplan notes that while “current
critical trajectories …separate British Studies from American
Studies” new directions in British Studies allow for an examination of empire closer to home, not only in Ireland but also in
the “urban immigrant communities” (18). Clearly, we can take
this critical approach and apply it to the Chartists and potentially other working class movements. Hence, the conflict is between classes but also between distinct cultural identities. The
efforts of the ruling classes to create a uniform society can be
observed in numerous instances in the early nineteenth century. For example, the Act of Union of 1801created a politically uniform state by incorporating Ireland into the rest of the
United Kingdom. The enclosing of land, the industrialization
of northern England, the growth of coal mining, and the expansion of the railroad (such as the Liverpool and Manchester
Line) along with the Land Ordnance Survey of 1824 in Ireland
gain new meaning from this perspective. Texts that challenge
the metropolitan center or are perceived to do so – such as As
You Like It – gain new currency. Edward Said states: “[C]olonial space must be transformed sufficiently so as no longer to
appear foreign to the imperial eye” (226). The Chartist support of Romantics and other artists who champion the idea of
a bucolic England while always done out of defiance grows

The Reconstructed Bard: Chartism and Shakespeare • 33

in intensity according to this argument because the Chartists
are protesting against the transformation of their space in order to make it more pleasing to “the imperial eye” in London.

The Chartists found themselves in an extraordinarily
complicated place within British society. They had to appeal to
a segment of the population that did not have a strong education
or exposure to the arts or, even in a number of cases, the ability
to read. The Chartists had to combine a radical political message
with popular cultural signifiers. Hence, Chartist artistic efforts
tend toward poetry, songs, and theatrical pieces because these
works could all be performed in a public setting without requiring the audience to read text (poetry and songs were particularly
valuable because they could be easily memorized without reading). The fifty plus Chartist newspapers and journals attempted to bridge the gap between politics and popular culture with
various degrees of success (The Northern Star was the most
successful). Only one writer seems truly to have navigated the
dangerous shoals between a radical avante-garde and the people: Charles Dickens. Ledger explains Dickens’ success, which
is also a fair barometer of what the Chartists ultimately failed to
achieve: “Dickens acted as a cultural bridge between, on the one
hand, an older, eighteenth-century political conception of ‘the
People’ and, on the other hand, a distinctly mid-nineteenth century modern conception of a mass-market ‘populace’” (Ledger
2-3: 2007). What Ledger credits as Dickens’ achievement – and

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