Civilization #51: Shakespeare’s Language of Empire

May 14, 2025 5288 Views

How did Shakespeare father the British empire?

In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that it was Shakespeare’s innovations in syntax and diction that transformed English into the linguistic Internet. Cultures, ideologies, and peoples could now meet on this Internet, and have their ideas and values pollinate and cross-breed within the framework of British civilization.

References:
1.) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
2.) Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
3.) “To Autumn” by John Keats

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