Politics, Power and Principle

I am one of the many admirers of Shakespeare's genius. I have even written a book about his unique ability to remain relevant to our contemporary concerns. The work was titled The Modernity of Shakespeare1 and it was very well received, and even earned a very laudatory foreword by W ole Soyinka, Nobel laureate in Literature, and professor of English literature. So it is no surprise that when I founded the New Library of Alexandria in Egypt, I also organized an annual Shakespeare event – usually organized on the 23rd of April if at all possible – in which many eminent literary critics participated. And as we focused on the plays rather than the long poems or the sonnets, some actors and occasionally cinematographers also participated. Students from the departments of English in many universities across Egypt, also invariably participated.

At that annual event I usually presented a special lecture on Shakespeare. This went on for almost 15 years.