Shakespeare Saved My Life (Laura Bates)

Je connais très peu l'œuvre de Shakespeare. J'ai lu Hamlet (en anglais) et je n'ai rien compris. J'ai vu le Macbeth d'Orson Welles (et le langage était assez ardu). (Oserais-je dire que j'avais oublié qu'Orson Welles lui-même jouait Macbeth ? Je pensais que c'était Roddy McDowall. Ma sœur m'a regardée bizarrement quand je lui ai dit cette énormité.)

Dans le cadre du Big Library Read (du 17 au 31 mars), le livre Shakespeare Saved my Life était proposé au téléchargement. L'histoire m'a paru intéressante : une professeure à Indiana State University demande l'autorisation d'enseigner Shakespeare dans le quartier d'isolement cellulaire d'une prison de l'Indiana. Elle y rencontre Larry Watson, emprisonné à perpétuité depuis ses 17 ans, qui se révèle brillant élève. J'ai téléchargé le livre sur mon Kindle.

Ce que j'ai préféré dans le livre : les résumés des différentes pièces par Larry. Ils sont drôles, bien pensés, et donneraient presque envie de lire Shakespeare. Ce qui m'a dégoûtée : l'attitude de certains gardes et directeurs de prison jaloux de la notoriété de Larry Watson (tu comprends, on a fait un documentaire sur lui), qui lui retirent le droit d'assister aux cours. Heureusement, grâce à ce "contact" avec Shakespeare, Larry a changé et ne se laisse plus démoraliser par cet environnement négatif. Comme il le dit, Shakespeare lui a sauvé la vie.

http://www.lauraraidonisbates.com/

Extraits :

Dans un univers insipide et incolore, un cardigan de Noël fait sensation auprès des prisonniers :

I disregarded my own rule only once, opting to wear a bright and colorful Christmas cardigan during the holiday season that was adorned with different appliquéd characters. When I entered the classroom, I was immediately surrounded by the group of prisoners, as excited as a bunch of children on Christmas morning. “Look,” said one of them, pointing to my left sleeve. “Here’s a snowman.” “Here’s a Christmas tree,” said one on my right. “And here’s Santa!” said a voice behind my back. I had to take the cardigan off and return to my usual prison uniform of basic black turtleneck and jeans before I could get the group to focus on Shakespeare.

Shakespeare est contagieux :

Newton’s enthusiasm for Shakespeare was becoming contagious throughout the prison population. “You can catch Shakespeare like a bad bug,” one prisoner told me, “and you just can’t shake it.” We received permission from the prison administration to begin circulating a weekly Shakespeare Newsletter, introducing more than two thousand maximum- security prisoners to the plays of Shakespeare.

Extrait de l'introduction de The Prisoner's Guide to the Complete Works of Shakespeare par Larry Watson :

What I can tell you is that ANY serious reader of Shakespeare is going to experience an evolution! It is an absolute magic, and the magic has little to do with what Shakespeare has to say. You can memorize every cool quote and be as clueless as you were before reading. So it is not Shakespeare’s offering that invokes this evolution. The secret, the magic, is YOU! Shakespeare has created an environment that allows for genuine development. The Shakespearean efforts are not to replace your pre-existing ideas with the ideas of some facilitator. The efforts are not to see you become the cookie-cutter copy of what some other person thinks you “should” be. Shakespeare is simply an environment that allows us to evolve without the influence of everyone else telling us what we should evolve into. Shakespeare offers a freedom from those prisons! Your mind will begin shaking the residue of other people’s ideas and begin developing understandings that are genuinely yours! That is the goal of these Shakespearean efforts. You have nothing to lose but the parts of you that do not belong anyhow.

Just as Larry Newton, one of the most notorious inmates at Indiana Federal Prison, was trying to break out of jail, Dr. Laura Bates was trying to break in. She had created the world’s first Shakespeare class in supermax – the solitary confinement unit.

Many people told Laura that maximum-security prisoners are “beyond rehabilitation." But Laura wanted to find out for herself. She started with the prison's most notorious inmate: Larry Newton. When he was 17 years old, Larry was indicted for murder and sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. When he met Laura, he had been in isolation for 10 years.

Larry had never heard of Shakespeare. But in the characters he read, he recognized himself. 

In this profound illustration of the enduring lessons of Shakespeare through the ten-year relationship of Bates and Newton, an amazing testament to the power of literature emerges. But it's not just the prisoners who are transformed. It is a starkly engaging tale, one that will be embraced by anyone who has ever been changed by a book.

Comments

[Alex mot a mots]

Tu en as appris plus sur l'oeuvre de Shakespeare ?

[Ex-In Cold Blog]

C'est justement le Macbeth d'Orson Wells, que j'avais regardé au Ciné Club de FR3 un dimanche soir !!!, qui m'a donné envie de lire la pièce de Shakespeare. ce film m'avait fasciné à l'époque.

Quant à l'expérience de L. Bates, why not? J'ai juste un peu peur que 300 pages pour suivre ses relations avec L. Watson soient un peu beaucoup pour moi...