‘This is a literary festival, right? Let’s talk about Shakespeare!’

No one else but Germaine Greer could confound audience expectations at a literature festival by insisting upon talking about literature. And no one else could turn the understanding of a show billed as a ‘non-stop Q&A’ on its head quite like Germaine did by deciding that she would be the one asking the questions and the audience would be giving the answers.

Appearing at Hull Truck on one of the hottest days of the year, and on the day that England were knocked out of the World Cup, the near-capacity crowd could be forgiven for feeling just a little bit tired and emotional. It was a risky thing for Greer to test the audience’s stamina by speaking for over 100 minutes on the subject of her next book, Shakespeare’s Wife, but one which brought unexpected rewards.

Explaining her dissatisfaction with current research on William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, she expressed the view that, typically, academics suffer from ‘higher Oxford stupidity’ when trying to interpret the few historical facts known about Shakespeare’s life. Greer gave an account of the relationship which incorporated a social history informed by feminism and her trademark wit.

Inviting contributions from the audience, Greer drew personal stories and comments from the punters , including Pauline Gift (Roland’s 80 year old mum), who spoke movingly about her experience of discovering she was to give birth to twins: ‘I knew it was different because I could count so many legs...when the consultant told me, he cleared all the furniture which wasn’t fixed down. The last mother to be given the news had trashed the room.’ Weaving contemporary feminism into Shakespearean scholarship, Greer gave a performance which was both eloquent and animated.

It is easy to forget that Greer’s reputation rests on her radical academic research rather than on her appearances on television shows like Celebrity Big Brother. Unusually, Greer steered clear of any fascination with her surface celebrity and reminded us why she is famous: because she is brilliant, witty, erudite and, above all, unpredictable.

From MH

Germaine Greer at Hull Truck by Laura Kilvington

As a enthusiastic follower of feminist literature, I attended the talk by Germaine Greer with the expectation of an intense, second wave feminism discussion like the all societies on the verge of death are masculine (Greer:1984) type opinions which I associated with her.

Instead, the rubric of Greer's discussion was Anne Hathaway, the older and greatly overlooked wife of William Shakespeare, and the subject of her eagerly awaited new book.....read more on thisisull.com