The History of Literature 770 Shakespeare and Civility (with Indira Ghose) | Robert W. Service and "The Cremation of Sam McGee"
Jan 26, 2026
Indira Ghose, Emeritus professor of English and Shakespeare scholar who studies early modern theatre, discusses civility as performance and its role in managing conflict. She contrasts competing models of manners, explores theatre as a lab for social tensions, and reads how plays stage pretense, sincerity, and exclusion. The conversation links early modern debates to modern questions about empathy and social cohesion.
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Bard Of The Yukon Finds Mass Appeal
- Robert W. Service rose from failed jobs and wanderings to fame by writing Yukon-themed verse that ordinary people loved.
- Jacke Wilson recounts Service's life and reads "The Cremation of Sam McGee" as a childhood memory and cultural touchstone.
Civility's Two Competing Faces
- Civility is radically ambivalent, serving either communal harmony or elite self-advancement.
- Indira Ghose contrasts Erasmus's universal civility with Castiglione's courtly, status-driven manners.
Pretense As Practical Rhetoric
- Pretense functions as performative rhetoric: its moral value depends on the end it serves.
- Ghose argues that faked respect can still produce cooperative effects if aimed at the common good.
