Shakespeare, Tyranny, and China

Literary scholar Nan Z. Da's The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear gives us a fresh framework to understand one of Shakespeare's best known tragedies. A wholly unique work of literary criticism, theory, memoir and history, the book examines China's long 20th century as a manifestation of King Lear, and seeks to explain the structure of the play through historical analysis of Maoism and its legacies. Nan Z. Da and Professor Stephen Greenblatt, author of Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics discuss how reading King Lear, Coriolanus and Richard III can still shed light on leaders past and present, and the societies in their thrall.