Aung lay biography of william shakespeare

Last Friday, Oct. 8, Macalester hosted a book launch for associate English professor Penelope Geng’s new book, “Communal Justice in Shakespeare’s England: Drama, Law, Emotion.” At the launch, the audience heard from Geng about her work, what inspired her to write the book and what she thought was most important about law in Shakespeare’s time.

The book argues for the importance of drama’s role in preserving the culture of participatory justice. Geng suggests that communal justice is not a new idea, and explains how English playwrights in the sixteenth century fostered this kind of advocacy. Her book focuses on how Shakespeare utilized the community in drama to bring the public together and advocate for communal justice. She draws on “King Lear” and “Macbeth” to discuss how legal work is often undertaken by the servants of these worlds. 

Geng’s intention with this book is to challenge the popular belief around the idea of “law” as a whole, and who can access it. Geng’s work proposes that common law as we know it today is based on the ideas of participatory justice and lay legalism as seen in Shakespeare’s plays. 

“In plays such as ‘King Lear’ and ‘Macbeth,’ laypeople accomplish the work of magistracy: conscience str