Hilary Mantel says: Don’t test pupils on Shakespeare
YOU’D imagine the author of the Tudor saga Wolf Hall would be delighted to know schoolchildren are studying Shakespeare.
But Dame Hilary Mantel believes his plays are ‘deeply unsuitable as an exam subject for pupils’.
The writer’s surprising opinion comes amid a furious debate as tens of thousands of teenagers prepare for exam papers on Shakespeare this summer.
Academic Sir Simon Schama believes children should be studying more Shakespeare, not less. ‘There is a real danger you can be shockingly patronising to children,’ he said. ‘Children love questions being raised that can’t quite be answered.’
But Emma Smith, a Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, has come out firmly against his works’ current place in the curriculum. Writing in This Is Shakespeare, her new book, she claims the genius of the playwright is the ‘gappiness’ of his works which asks big questions, but does not provide answers.
This, she concludes, makes it impossible for students to seek to give ‘correct’ answers in the exam hall. She adds: ‘Confession: I don’t really care what he might have meant, and nor should you.’ Her view is supported by Dame Hilary. ‘My heart warmed when she said Shakespeare was deeply unsuitable as an exam subject. I think she is right – it is the gaps and absences that are creative, the indeterminacies, the questions,’ she said. Calling for a new kind of exam to encourage students to put forward multiple explanations to the same question, Prof Smith said the focus on exams led to pupils viewing Shakespeare as a problem to be solved – often with the help of study guides that failed to convey the sophistication or beauty of the text. ‘One of the misconceptions is he’s difficult and there is a code and if you crack it, you know the answer,’ she said. ‘That misconception comes from people having to study for their exams.’