Because Radix is increasingly interested in book reviewing, we thought that a conversation on Shakespeare’s Hamlet would be interesting. The classics will always be the classics! So, enter Dr. Gideon Rappaport, who has recently published a thoroughly annotated edition of Hamlet. You can check it out: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Edited and Annotated by Gideon Rappaport.
In this interview, David Anonby (a Shakespeare scholar himself, and a professor as well) questions Gideon about his recent book, and Shakespeare in general. The interview touches on some compelling topics about the Bard, including Shakespeare’s keen understanding of human nature, his Christianity, the misconceptions surrounding his accessibility, and his role in culture. In general, through the various lenses of dramaturge, teacher and literary scholar, this conversation underscores the enduring relevance and joy of engaging with Shakespearean literature.
Here are the bios for our guests
Gideon Rappaport, retired teacher and active dramaturge, has taught Shakespeare for forty-five years in high school, college, graduate school, and adult education courses, and served as dramaturge for Shakespeare and other productions at North Coast Rep, San Diego Rep, California Shakes, Old Globe, BAYFEST, New Fortune, Intrepid, Coronado, Moonlight, The Bishop’s School, and La Jolla Country Day School theaters, and for Complete Works on Hulu.com, in which he had his film debut. He graduated from Cowell College, UC Santa Cruz, and earned his Ph.D. in English and American Literature at Brandeis University. He is the editor of Dusk and Dawn: Poems and Prose of Philip Thompson, co-author of Introduction to the Fundamental Liberal Arts: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and author of Appreciating Shakespeare (2022), William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (2023), Shakespeare’s Rhetorical Figures: An Outline (2024), and High School Homilies and Other Writings (soon to come from One Mind Good Press). He lives in San Diego, California.
To learn more about Gideon, see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrDJMhBfjQs. (A presentation on his recent book at the D.G. Wills Bookstore)
www.onemindgoodpress.com. (His publisher’s press page)
https://appreciatingshakespeare.buzzsprout.com/ (His Buzzsprout podcast Appreciating Shakespeare with Doctor Rap)
https://www.youtube.com/@shakespearesrealtake5300/playlists (His YouTube channel, “Shakespeare’s Real Take”)
David Anonby has a Ph.D. from the University of Victoria in early modern literature with a specialization in Shakespeare and religion. He is assistant professor of English literature at Trinity Western University, where he has taught Shakespeare and other literature since 2002. He has published and presented papers on historical religious controversy in Shakespeare and on the theology of John Donne. His monograph, Shakespeare on Salvation: Crossing the Reformation Divide, was published in 2024 by Pickwick Publications, an academic imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book explores the negotiation of Reformation controversies about doctrines of salvation (soteriology) in Shakespearean drama. David is passionate about communicating the influence of Christianity on Western literary classics, a cultural heritage that continues to prove valuable in our current postmodern, multicultural, religiously pluralistic, and technological context.
You can check out David’s recent book Shakespeare on Salvation: Crossing the Reformation Divide
Names mentioned in this interview:
C.S. Lewis, David Scott Kastan, Mary Holmes, Philip Thompson, Scott Newstok, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, St. Thomas Aquinas
Books mentioned:
Appreciating Shakespeare (Gideon Rappaport)
Shakespeare on Salvation: Crossing the Reformation Divide (David Anonby)
Shakespeare’s Rhetorical Figures: An Outline (Gideon Rappaport)
Summa Theologica (St. Thomas Aquinas)
The Abolition of Man (C.S. Lewis)
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Edited and Annotated by Gideon Rappaport (Gideon Rappaport)