Naked Villany: The Fatal Attraction of Richard III and Donald Trump

David Livingstone

doi:10.18778/2083-8530.25.03

Authors

David Livingstone Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3973-0620

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.25.03

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Keywords:

William Shakespeare, Richard III, Donald Trump, Soliloquies, Asides, Twitter

Abstract

Although no longer American President, Donald Trump still manages to upstage the current administration. An explanation for his “sinister aesthetics”, to use Joel Elliot Slotkin’s concept, can be seemingly found in developing a comparison with the eponymous king of Shakespeare’s Richard III, who masterfully employs soliloquies and asides to draw the audience and reader into his evil plots and dealings. Donald Trump also managed something similar by means of Twitter, constantly tweeting out vicious comments and insults, which kept both his followers and opponents engaged. This theatrical skill is also compared to the ‘heat’ generated by villains in professional wrestling, whose popularity is marked by how much hatred they can produce.

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Author Biography

David Livingstone, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic

David Livingstone is an American citizen living and working in the Czech Republic for the last thirty years. He teaches Shakespeare, modernism, Czech culture, children’s literature and American folk music at Palacký University, Olomouc. His doctoral dissertation, entitled Subversive Characters and Techniques in Shakespeare’s History Plays, attempted feminist and cultural materialist readings of the first Henriad in particular. He recently published a book, In Our Own Image: Fictional Representations of William Shakespeare, which looks at the wealth of novels, plays, short stories, films, television series and even comics focused on Shakespeare as a character.

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