I think we were about 13 (might have been 12) when we did it at my Catholic comprehensive school, so almost certainly no one of Jewish origin in the class. We had a good English lit teacher and she made a point of bringing out the anti-semitism, but obviously that can't give the lived experience, especially not to a bunch of 13yos. Every Christian reads Merchant from a position of privilege, even in a deprived area like ours was. That said, if you have to pick one Shakespeare to teach to kids, then maybe Merchant is the best Shakespeare to teach, with that essential contextualization, because it teaches us that he was an imperfect man of his times and that anything we read of his needs to be read with that thought being whispered in our ear.
ETA: And thinking some more of your thoughts on never rooting for the Venetians, and on Jessica, and the coda, I realise that we don't just read it from a position of privilege, but, intertwined with that, from a very different context.
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Date: 2016-07-27 02:26 pm (UTC)I think we were about 13 (might have been 12) when we did it at my Catholic comprehensive school, so almost certainly no one of Jewish origin in the class. We had a good English lit teacher and she made a point of bringing out the anti-semitism, but obviously that can't give the lived experience, especially not to a bunch of 13yos. Every Christian reads Merchant from a position of privilege, even in a deprived area like ours was. That said, if you have to pick one Shakespeare to teach to kids, then maybe Merchant is the best Shakespeare to teach, with that essential contextualization, because it teaches us that he was an imperfect man of his times and that anything we read of his needs to be read with that thought being whispered in our ear.
ETA: And thinking some more of your thoughts on never rooting for the Venetians, and on Jessica, and the coda, I realise that we don't just read it from a position of privilege, but, intertwined with that, from a very different context.