Word: pretenders
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...department's least convincing argument supporting the greater emphasis on British literature states simply that it is of a higher quality. Such a position would probably be thrown out on a campus where the British scholars did not so overwhelmingly outnumber their American counterparts, but to pretend that literature is evaluated or prized by its "artistic value" alone is smug and ignorant. Shelley called poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Literature establishes a dialogue of ideas, and is therefore an inherently political act. Writers frequently use whatever they consider as the political, social, or structural subtext of their contemporaries...
...This country is insane and immoral and has no conscience," he shouted as the audience applauded. "How dare [we] pretend to be the police of theworld?" he asked...
Blind casting is a relative ideal; it is a corrective measure. To pretend that the bias that infused drama did not infuse society is at best idiotic and at worst malicious. We cross-cast now to redress certain cultural greivances, but we should never forget how grave those greivances are. If a director casts an Asian-American as a Prince Hamlet, that still does not soothe the stinging reality that the West never did, indeed, never could, envision an Asian protagonist. Because so many roles are scripted for the social majority as acknowledged by our culture, roles scripted for Asian...
Unfortunately, the dramatic direction is not strong enough to redeem the failings of the cabaret. The characters turn and deliver their lines straight to the audience, not bothering to open their stance and pretend that they are conversing with each other. As a result the illusion of on-stage reality is never maintained, and the audience cannot forget that Chicago is really only a series of sound bites...
...those who say I can't understand, I say, "Maybe I can't. But pretend, just for the sake of argument, that I'm not as white as you think...