Did “Globalism Begin with Shakespeare”?

Abstract

The question in the title has been formulated in view of the phrase opening Philip Leonard's book Literature after globalization (2013): “Glabalization, as it tends to be understood today, begins with Shakespeare.” It reminds that two centuries ago the idea of worldliness as Weltgescihte had been coined by Herder and launched into the literary domain as Weltliteratur by Goethe with Shakespeare as its precursor. It seemed reasonable to appeal to the recently discovered in Europe of the 18th century English playwright who wrote his best known plays for the Globe theatre. Who did not observe the limitations of time and place, demanded by the classical rules, but opened up his plays to accommodate world history and world geography. But can his worldliness be represented as globalization with its logically final aims — without borders and nations, without identities and national cultures? This statement will lead to probe into the nature of world history, on the one hand, and global, on the other, to follow the evolution of such concepts as nation — land — England presented in Shakespeare's chronicles more than in any other genre.