Foto: picture alliance/Michael Reichel
“Shakespeare is,” as Peter Hacks wrote, “what we all want and cannot do.” As depressing and clear-sighted as this remarkable first sentence, written 60 years ago on William Shakespeare’s supposed 400th birthday, the rest of the text continues . »There are innovations in post-Shakespearean drama; “There are no improvements as far as I know,” he postulates. But Peter Hacks had it easy to say: Even if Hacks wasn’t Shakespeare, he could at least claim to be Hacks. It’s definitely not the same. But what can we say to little lights whose names are hardly worth adorning ourselves with?
To the remark of the Shakespeare admirer Hegel that all great world-historical facts and people happened twice, the Shakespeare admirer Marx added: “once as a tragedy, the other time as a farce.” We live – so much honesty must be allowed – in the age of farce.
If you open Shakespeare’s works anywhere and compare what is depicted with the reality of life in contemporary late capitalism, you will notice that the Elizabethans loved, hated and killed more passionately; the intrigues were more sophisticated; the human depths appeared undisguised. Shakespeare knew what tragedy was; Now we can endure farce after farce. Shakespeare teaches us humility.
Genosse Shakespeare
As you like it: Every two weeks, Erik Zielke writes about great tragedies, political smear theater and fools from the past and present. He finds inspiration in his comrade from Stratford-upon-Avon.
You can find all columns here.
We don’t know who this William Shakespeare really was. A hillbilly, a lord, the queen, an unemployed actor, a collective of scribblers? What is certain is that Comrade Shakespeare has already described the problems we face today. However, he understood them better than we do today. If you want to learn something about people in the 21st century, it’s worth taking a look at Shakespeare’s texts.
You can also watch Netflix in search of insight. But I suspect that you wouldn’t find it too quickly. Instead, if you like, read something about the old man from Stratford here every two weeks. He still has a lot to say to us.
It will be – we owe it to the author – entertaining. Promised. However, the lines you find here will be less elegant, less artful, not as profound and worldly as Shakespeare could have done. It is in the nature of things that you can only approach your object roughly if it is big enough. This column, that much is clear, will neither shy away from the detour of the small or remote nor from daring or even oblique comparisons and will therefore seek out the Macbeth couple of German politics, track down the revenants of the aged Lear in the government rooms and the fools in the stands of the encounter the Internet.
Peter Hacks summed it up superbly: »You can be different from Shakespeare; through mistakes.” Let’s see this as a relief.
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