A compelling new reading of The Tragedy of King Lear that finds parallels in twentieth-century Chinese history
At the start of Shakespeares famous tragedy, King Lear promises to divide his kingdom based on his daughters professions of love, but portions it out before hearing all of their answers. For Nan Da, this opening scene sparks a reckoning between The Tragedy of King Lear, one of the cruelest and most confounding stories in literature, and the tragedy of Maoist and post-Maoist China. Da, who emigrated from China to the United States as a child in the 1990s, brings Shakespeares tragedy to life on its own terms, addressing the concerns it reflects over the transition from Elizabeth I to James I with a fearsome sense of what would soon come to pass. At the same time, she uses the play as a lens to revisit the world of Maoist Chinawhat it did to people, and what it did to storytelling.
Blending literary analysis and personal history, Da begins in her childhood during Deng Xiaopings Opening and Reform, then moves back and forth between Lear and China. In her powerful reading, the unfinished business of Maoism and other elements of Chinese thought and culturefrom Confucianism to the spectacles of Peking Operahelp elucidate the choices Shakespeare made in constructing Lear and the unbearable confusions he left behind.
